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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23262838">CoSL22: The Truth Will Out</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dracophile/pseuds/Dracophile'>Dracophile</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Grimm-The Casebook of Sloane Larson [22]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Grimm (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Fire, Murder Mystery, Pining, episode rewrite, hexenbiests, non-consensual foot amputation</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-03-22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-03-22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-20 05:20:53</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>35,724</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23262838</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dracophile/pseuds/Dracophile</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Part 22 of The Casebook of Sloane Larson</p><p>Rewrites of Maréchaussée, Trial by Fire and Bad Luck</p><p>First, a wesen bounty hunter comes to Portland and leaves a trail of bodies in his path at the behest of the council, crossing the line for the Grimms. Then a firebug ends up killing two in an insurance fraud gone wrong,  and they need help from one of Nick's old perps. Finally, someone's stealing feet? For what?! All through this though, Nick finds out the secret Juliette has been hiding and things start taking a turn...</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Nick Burkhardt/Juliette Silverton, Rosalee Calvert/Monroe, Sean Renard/Adalind Schade</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Grimm-The Casebook of Sloane Larson [22]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1061588</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>5</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>14</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>CoSL22: The Truth Will Out</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p><p>----------------</p><p>
  <strong>Maréchaussée</strong>
</p><p>----------------                                             </p><p>“I think I've been here before,” Wu said. It was only a few days after the events at the Donovan house when they got another call. A double homicide in a Psychic shop. The place had a neon sign that said “Fortune Teller” in blue and purple with yellow stars and moons on either side of a hand in the window. Other palmistry, tarot and other fortune ability posters were on the other windows. The door itself had the picture for a persons’ head like a phrenologist’s diagram painted on.</p><p>“You've had your fortune told?” Hank asked in surprise.</p><p>“Actually, I did, about 20 years ago at the Cleveland County Fair. I was supposed to be a rock star and rich. But that was in Ohio,” he said with a wry smile. “However, now I happen to be talking about this MO here. It's the same as we had with that security firm, rather large stab wounds to the chest, the ones with scorpion venom.” He eyed them and Sloane sighed in exasperation.</p><p>“Oh hell, another manticore?”</p><p>“I knew it!” He said. “I need to study more of those books…I don’t’ remember enough from when I was at Sloane’s…”</p><p>“I’ll get you a way into the trailer,” Nick said. “Who reported?”</p><p>“Landlord came by this morning to collect the rent. Instead...” Wu said, opening the door and leading them inside. The front room seemed like a normal check-in/waiting room like you would see in an office. But then through the door at the back they entered a room that screamed “mystic arts” with maybe a teenager’s understanding of them from fantasy novels. There was a seal with sigils painted on the ceiling in red around the light. Brocade curtains hung over the windows to block out all light, and on the walls as decoration over the blue painted wainscoting. Candle sconces on the walls, half melted. A Mucha-style painting with a wispy, magical looking woman. And an old table with two woven back chairs were in the center on top of an old Persian style rug. Nothing out of the ordinary, until you saw the two dead people on the floor. One was a man with long gray hair and trimmed beard, slumped against the wall. The other a woman in a flowing dress and brocade duster with a scarf tied around her head. Both had wounds in their chests. “He found the bodies.”</p><p>Sloane pulled her gloves on and walked over, crouching to look over the wound on the man. “Yeah, looks like a Manticore all right…”</p><p>“Guess we can rule out robbery,” Hank said, shining his light on the cash that was strewn between them like confetti. A lot of twenties, fifties and even some hundreds from the look of it. “Anything on the vics?”</p><p>“Mabel and Laszlo Kurlon from the Czech Republic, been in Portland just over a year and renting the shop for nine months,” Wu said, reading from his notebook.</p><p>“How many ways in?” Nick asked, shining his light around. It seemed like the light above had low watt bulbs to keep the ambience in check.</p><p>“Two. Back door was unlocked. Front door was unlocked. Lights were still on. So, whoever came in didn't have to work for it.”</p><p>“They just came in for the kill,” Hank said.</p><p>“Maybe they got a bad fortune,” Wu said dryly.</p><p>“I don’t go on a homicidal rampage after Chinese food if I don’t like the fortune,” Sloane said.</p><p>“If the fortune-tellers were any good, they would have seen this coming,” Nick said. He glanced at Sloane, but she didn’t look back. She didn’t quite want to revisit their conversation a few nights ago yet.</p><p>“Got an appointment book. Last appointment: last night, 7:30,” Hank said, picking</p><p>“Got a name?” Nick asked, coming over to look over his shoulder.</p><p>“Well, if I could read it…Starts with a P.”</p><p>“Let me work on it,” Wu said, gently taking it from him.</p><p>“Do we have the landlord?” Sloane asked.</p><p>“I got him outside,” Wu said.</p><p>She nodded to Nick and Hank. “Why don’t you guys go chat with him. I’ll look around, see if I find anything that might explain why a Manticore came after them.”</p><p>“Alright, sounds good,” Hank nodded, turning to head out. Nick nodded too, following him a little more slowly as he glanced back. Sloane didn’t notice though, looking over the table in the center. So, he quickly caught up to Hank.</p><p>Sloane, meanwhile, ran her hand over the table lightly. It was mostly bare, so she didn’t worry too much about disturbing it. She didn’t find any gears or mechanisms she might expect—common with fake psychics who want to shake or “levitate” a table. When she looked under, she noted something near the edge of the table on the psychic’s side. She pressed down on it and hummed when the table did rise a couple of inches, like the press for cymbal in a drum set. Impressive way to do it and not have a tablecloth that would make people suspicious. When she touched the chair she was fairly sure the psychic sat it, nothing stood out. But then she touched the customer’s chair and paused. There was a very slight vibration going through it, just at the back. Nothing noticeable if you weren’t looking for it, but she could imagine some might find it giving the feeling their spine tingling.</p><p>“I knew it…” she muttered, shaking her head. She knew there were likely other tricks they could find, but this pointed to the two victims trying to defraud people. But there was usually more to it. Either one or both were very good at cold reading, or they had other tricks up their sleeves. There were normal things she expected: The dim lights, the curtains, the candles, etc. But that was a lot of money on the floor. They must’ve offered something that had their customers willing to pay. <em>Why would a manticore kill a couple of fake psychics? They don’t fear death, so why would they bother?</em></p><p>She sighed and decided to go out to get back with Nick and Hank. They just finished up with the landlord when she walked up. “Hey. Find anything?” Nick asked.</p><p>“Well, confirmed they were likely charlatans,” Sloane said, taking off her gloves. “Several tricks in the furniture, and probably others they broke out as the need called for it.”</p><p>“You think that’s a motive?”</p><p>She shrugged. “I guess people grieving could do something in anger…but then, why not take the money? In for a penny. What about you guys?”</p><p>“Nothing too weird. Landlord said they usually paid in cash—their choice, not his. Never checked their references. Thought they might’ve been in Reno before now, but he’s going to hunt down all that info for us,” Hank said.</p><p>“How nice of him,” Sloane smirked.</p><p>“Well I got you something,” Wu said, walking over with his computer from the car. “Looks like I got a match on Anne Peyton. Got an address in the southeast and a phone number to go with it. Could she be the Manticore?” he added quietly.</p><p>“She was the last one scheduled to see them…” Hank said.</p><p>“If she is, she's not gonna make a move on four cops,” Nick said.</p><p>“You forgot about that whole “no fear of death thing”, huh?” Sloane asked wryly.</p><p>“Don’t know about the fear of death, but you put the fear of Sloane into the last one we met,” Nick smirked back.</p><p>“Yes, I did,” she said, looking proud with her hands on her hips. Nick just chuckled and pushed her towards the car.</p><p>They drove to Anne Peyton’s house, a normal two story in a non-descript neighborhood. Sloane thought she might nearly have a breakdown when they explained why they were there. If she’d killed them she was fantastic at acting distraught to the point of tears. She also didn’t exactly fit the type. She was a short, round woman with a very motherly sort of tone and way about her. And a nervousness. She was more like a maushertz in Sloane’s opinion but she never woged. They finally got her to calm down and she sighed.</p><p>“I’m sorry…really, I’m…I’ve just been a mess lately, since Louis died…” she said. “It’s been six months and I…I don’t know what to do with myself, honestly. I thought maybe I’d found a way to at least talk again, for a little while. Till I was ready…”</p><p>“We understand that might’ve put a strain on you…” Hank said sympathetically.</p><p>She sighed, pacing a bit as she collected herself. Then paused by a picture and picked it up. “This my favorite picture of Louis and me,” she said, smiling sadly. “We were on vacation in Vermont. We were so happy. It was right before he was diagnosed,” she finished somberly, walking over to the couch to sit with the picture.</p><p>“Tell us what happened last night in the session,” Nick said, sitting next to her.</p><p>“Oh, it was amazing,” she sighed. “I wasn't sure if I was just making a fool of myself or what, but a friend of mine went to them, and she said it was incredible. And that's why I went. And it was!”</p><p>“Did you see any physical changes?”</p><p>“Oh, yes, yes. Laszlo channeled this spirit called Fadó.” They all glanced at one another, dubious. “I know how it sounds, but I swear it was real. I saw him change, his whole face. He was something completely different. It's... it's kind of hard to describe,” she sighed. Her hands moved as she talked trying to figure out her words. “He had fur, and he was sort of animal-like…You must think I'm crazy.”</p><p>“Who was in the room with you when it happened?” Hank asked, dodging that statement.</p><p>“Just me and Laszlo and Mabel.”</p><p>“Now, you said Laszlo changed. Did Mabel change in any way?” Nick asked.</p><p>She shook her head, a slight touch of defensiveness in her tone now. “No. They didn't do anything wrong! I communicated with my husband last night. I'm sure of it. I mean, they were worth every penny. I just... I can't believe that somebody would kill them. I wanted so badly to speak to my husband again.” She chocked up, sniffing. “I'm sorry. It's just... It's been so lonely.”</p><p>Nick nodded sympathetically and set a hand on her knee, patting it kindly. They asked a few more cursory questions that was expected of them before rising to leave. She walked them to the door and looked almost sad they were leaving. Maybe it had been a while since she had company?</p><p>“…Mrs. Peyton. Can I give some advice?” Sloane asked. She nodded to her partners who went to wait outside.</p><p>She sighed, looking down. “You’re going to tell me not to trust psychics? That there’s no such thing?”</p><p>“Well, honestly, yes.”</p><p>“Look, I don’t expect you to understand—” she started.</p><p>“I understand perfectly. I did something similar when I was just a kid and lost someone I loved.” She quieted, surprised a little. “I learned early on a lot that set up like the Kurlons, to make it seem amazing. But did they tell you anything only your husband would know? Anything they couldn’t find googling your name and where you grew up? Or out right, not asking “oh, does this mean something to you? This vague reference to something?””</p><p>“…No…” She admitted, deflating a little. “But they said the connection was lost. That I would have to come back. Except I can’t now—”</p><p>“Leave them wanting more is a staple of all acts,” Sloane said bluntly, a little harshly. Anne wasn’t expecting that and closed her mouth. “And as for how they figure things out, it’s called cold reading people. It’s actually a pretty hard skill to learn. They pick up on subtle signals, get a little information where they can like online or in papers, and just ask leading questions. We do it too, honestly,” she gestured at herself and out at Nick and Hank. “It’s super useful in investigations. For example, your necklace. It’s important to you?”</p><p>“Well…yes.”</p><p>“Your husband gave it to you.”</p><p>“I…yes, how did you know?”</p><p>“You touched it a couple of times talking about him. It’s an unconscious sign. The infinity symbol on the necklace was to mean something like infinite love? Something he gave you before he passed?”</p><p>She nodded again, looking down again in disappointment and grief. “Yes…I see what you mean now…”</p><p>Sloane frowned and sighed. “I’m not telling you this to say it’s all bunk. I’ve seen some things that I can’t rule out being “paranormal”. But I got good at spotting fakes, and unfortunately they outnumber any real people with gifts out there and are a lot louder than them. But I wouldn’t keep searching. Would your husband want you spending so much money doing this? When you could be out doing stuff you like again?”</p><p>Anne shook her head, tearing up a bit. “D…did you really go through this?”</p><p>“Yeah. I lost someone very suddenly and violently. I wanted to talk to them again too. I had a lot of questions. Funnily enough I was just talking to someone else about this not too long ago…” She glanced at the door, where Nick and Hank were waiting by the car.</p><p>“…Did you get over it?”</p><p>Sloane sighed. “Sort of. It still hurts. It’s always going to in some way. But the pain gets…smaller. Less feeling it all the time to only when I let myself think about it too long. Though, I just started to let myself actually heal though. I held on to it for a long time and didn’t have a good…support before. Now I do. You got other people I see, from your photos. Are you really alone?”</p><p>“…No,” she nodded. “I know I’m not…except here.” She gestured at the house.</p><p>“Then get out of here. I don’t mean sell, unless that’s what you want, but…go out with your friends! Have a movie night! Join a club! A support group! Go be with people and talk about stuff. That’s the only way I stopped feeling it. Something other than chasing the pain and the memories. You’ll just keep making excuses to find someone else or go back and no matter what, at the end of the time there you just lose him again...Your just in a loop of hurting yourself. Again…talking from experience,” she sighed.</p><p>Anne looked at her a moment before nodding. “I…you make a good point. I’ll think about that.”</p><p>Sloane nodded. “Okay…sorry if I overstepped or anything, I just sort of…wanted to help?”</p><p>“No…no, honestly, I did need to hear some of that, I know. I just…need to think.”</p><p>Sloane nodded and headed back out.</p><p>“What was that?” Hank asked.</p><p>“Just telling her to pull her life together,” Sloane said, climbing into the car.</p><p>“I hope you used nicer words than that,” Nick said. He knew she did, he could see her expressions from the car. Two years ago, she wouldn’t have tried to comfort a witness, but it made him smile a bit. Sloane’s heart grew at least two sizes the last two years.</p><p>“Well either way, I don’t think she’s the Manticore,” she sighed.</p><p>“But we agree Lazlo probably was a wesen?” Wu asked.</p><p>“Oh yeah,” Hank said. “But I don’t know if that’s a motive. Wesen on Wesen still usually has a reason.”</p><p>“So, we gotta keep hunting that reason out,” Nick nodded.</p><p>------------------</p><p>“So, the widow is not your Manticore,” Renard said, looking over the file after they summed up what they found so far.</p><p>“Oh, she's not even Wesen, according to Nick and Sloane,” Wu said.</p><p>“But Laszlo had to be, and he wasn't hiding it; he was using it,” Hank said.</p><p>“That's why she was so convinced he was talking to the dead. He woged into a… “animal spirit guide”,” Nick said.</p><p>“I give them credit, it’s one way to really wow their clients enough to keep coming back and take them seriously,” Sloane sighed.</p><p>“Yeah, you see something like that, you'll believe anything,” Wu said dryly.</p><p>“The Manticore had to have shown up just after she left. The shop was still open, lights were still on, doors unlocked,” Hank said.</p><p>“So, if we have a Manticore that was going to a Wesen for a fortune, the woge is not gonna work. He'd know he was being scammed,” Renard said.</p><p>“Sounds like motive. He was pissed,” Wu said.</p><p>“No. They must’ve had a screening process for Kehrseite and other wesen,” Sloane said. “Otherwise it would be too risky to just woge to try and fool them. I don’t think this killer was a customer. Maybe he was trying to get revenge for someone?”</p><p>“Unless it's a Wesen Council thing,” Nick sighed.</p><p>Wu looked up, confused. “A what?”</p><p>At the same time both Nick’s phone rang—<em>Hungry like the Wolf </em>on Cello. “Remember how I said there are some powers out there who prefer wesen stay “hidden”?” Sloane said.</p><p>“Not everything's in the books,” Hank said, Renard nodding sagely.</p><p>Nick smiled and answered his phone. “Monroe, you back?...Great. Um, I know you just got in, but can we come by? Hank, Sloane and me? We need your help. …If you're not too busy. …Great. We're on our way.” He hanged up, smiling a bit. “Well, Monroe and Rosalee are home.”</p><p>“I was hoping we wouldn’t need them right away when they got back…” Sloane sighed, disappointed.</p><p>“Rosalee has a lot more knowledge of the council though. If this is something to do with them, it could help.”</p><p>“I know,” She nodded, standing.</p><p>“Let me know what you find out if possible,” Renard asked.</p><p>“Me too,” Wu said. “I mean…I’m still learning all this.”</p><p>“Come along,” Sloane said.</p><p>“Really?”</p><p>“Yeah, you’re part of the team,” Nick said.</p><p>He smiled and they waved to Renard before turning to head out.</p><p>Renard watched them go then sighed. He looked at his phone, but he had no text from Henrietta. He’d asked to her to keep in touch with him on Juliette. When she had come to his house the night after dealing with the Wesenrein, without Nick, he didn’t know what to think. It was hard not to remember the passion they felt for one another during the time she was cursed—it was a destructive force that nearly consumed them. He knew that couldn’t be why she was there though. Even if it was, he wasn’t going to put everything at risk for her. His truce with Nick was still not on firm ground and he couldn’t blame him.</p><p>When she’d changed into a Hexenbiest though he’d nearly fallen over in shock. Her hair stayed that russet brown, but her skin turned thin and leathery, almost torn in some places and dry. Her teeth decrepit. Her eyes were dark but burned like coal fires. She was still…beautiful. In a way that Hexenbiest and Zauberbiests found one another beautiful no matter the form. But he knew this wasn’t right. She’d begged for his help and he agreed. It took a few days to get in contact with Henrietta since he hadn’t talked to her in years. But she was part of the reason he and his mother had moved to Portland in his youth, so he was grateful she had stayed. Getting her to agree wasn’t as hard as he’d feared. Not telling Nick was much harder.</p><p>The day he met up with Juliette to tell her, he watched her wreck the car of some self-absorbed asshole who nearly ran her over just by woging. He realized just how powerful she could become then, and it was more than terrifying. But he got her inside and gave her the number. Well, had her memorize the number, before Henrietta’s magic sent them turning and scattering over the page. From there it was up to her and Henrietta when to meet. He just hoped she could help Juliette, because he wasn’t sure how much longer he could keep it from Nick, or Sloane for that matter.</p><p>The worse news came that morning though and he clicked his email again on his computer. Some of his people at the airport had sent him notice that Viktor Chlodwig zu Schellendorf von Konigsburg had come to Portland. And with him was Marcus Rispoli, leader of the Verrat. And worse yet, Adalind Schade’s passport had also been scanned.</p><p>Another email came through then and he opened it to see confirmation of where Viktor was staying. The penthouse of one of the most luxurious hotels in Portland, of course. Perhaps he owed him a visit…</p><p>-------------------</p><p>Monroe opened the door when there was a knock and smiled as he opened it. “It's like we never left.”</p><p>“Welcome back,” Nick said, hugging Monroe.</p><p>“We missed you,” Sloane said, hugging Rosalee when she came over. Monroe and Rosalee switched then who to hug, and then ushered them in.</p><p>“Good to have you two back,” Hank said, opting for pats on the back as he walked it.</p><p>“Portland wasn't the same without you,” Wu said, doing the same.</p><p>“Ha, thanks. How are you with all this?” Monroe asked.</p><p>“I'm…getting used to it,” he said honestly. “It’s better stepping through the door than ignoring it.” Monroe nodded a bit, though he was a bit confused by the metaphor.</p><p>“So, what do you got?” Rosalee sighed with a smile as she sat down.</p><p>“Manticore,” Nick said.</p><p>“Another one?” Monroe gaped.</p><p>“That's what I said,” Sloane chuckled.</p><p>“Well, I mean, they're just about impossible to kill,” he complained.</p><p>“This one killed two people last night,” Nick said</p><p>“We also think the vics were Wesen,” Hank said.</p><p>“But you don't know for sure?” Monroe asked.</p><p>“Well, they were dead,” Wu said, lips thinning out into a line. Monroe gave an <em>oh, right</em> sort of look.</p><p>“They were fortune-tellers,” Nick went on, going to sit down in front of them. “We interviewed their last client, and she described what sounded like a woge.”</p><p>“During the fortune-telling?” Rosalee asked, shocked but concerned.</p><p>“Yeah.”</p><p>She sighed. “Then my guess is, they were breaking Council law.”</p><p>“Oh, boy,” Monroe said, rolling his eyes upward.</p><p>“So, wait, the council would’ve sent someone to take care of them?” Sloane asked. “I mean, I knew they did that for some things like with the grausen, but this? You said the carnival towed the line but wasn’t something they’d get into.”</p><p>“Yes, but that’s in a crowd posing it as a magic trick or…sideshow act. One on one, in a small room, with a Kehrseite who thinks it’s real even if they don’t know what a woge is?”</p><p>“Yeah, that would be a big problem. I know there’s a lot of psychic shows out, but the customers don’t see it as entertainment,” Monroe said. Sloane nodded, agreeing with that.</p><p>“If they’d done this before they’d be on a list. If they were on a list they’d send someone,” Rosalee nodded.</p><p>“List? There's a list?” Wu asked, jaw open.</p><p>“The Council keeps records of Wesen who violate Council Law,” she explained. “Sometimes they send out their own people, like Alexander. Sometimes they use Maréchaussée.”</p><p>“Bless you,” Sloane said. Rosalee rolled her eyes but smiled.</p><p>“The Maréchaussée are only in it for the money,” Monroe said. “I mean, strictly mercenary. They're basically bounty hunters.”</p><p>“Wesen bounty hunters?” Hank asked, surprised.</p><p>“Yeah, big money. Not much of a health plan, but...”</p><p>“…How much money we talkin’?” Sloane asked curiously. Nick and Hank looked at her disapprovingly and she shrugged. “What, I can’t have a side job?”</p><p>“You have a side job. It’s either being a Grimm or a detective, depending on the day. And you get healthcare with one of them,” Nick said.</p><p>“Huh, good point…And both technically, if you know who to call and don’t mind back alley doctors.”</p><p>“Guys, this is serious. If this is Wesen Council, I'd just stay out of it,” Rosalee said soberly.</p><p>They looked at one another again and looked back. “As a Grimm, maybe, but not as a cop,” Nick said.</p><p>“Yeah. I don’t know if we can sweep this under the rug,” Sloane agreed. “I may not like what they were doing fooling people as “psychics”, but they didn’t kill or physically hurt anyone we can find out. If all they did was defraud people, even if they did risk being found out, I’m not sure I agree the punishment fits the crime…”</p><p>Rosalee sighed but nodded a little. She didn’t disagree. The council’s choices were feeling more and more old-fashioned and heartless. “Well, at least let me see what I can find out from the Council.</p><p>“Okay…We’re sorry again to dump this on you just as you got home,” Nick said. “After you settle in again, we should all get together. Movie night, with some pizza and beer.”</p><p>“I like the sound of that,” Monroe smiled.</p><p>“Yeah. Sloane’s never seen the Lion King,” Hank said.</p><p>“What?!” they both gasped. Sloane just groaned a bit flopped back in her chair.</p><p>--------------</p><p>They returned to the precinct to try and track down any leads through their victims’ history to see how a Maréchaussée may have tracked them down. “Looks like our vics were living pretty much off the grid: no bank accounts, no tax returns…” Hank said.</p><p>“Can't find a vehicle registration or driver's license for either one,” Nick sighed.</p><p>“Sounds like people who don't want to be found to me,” Sloane said. She’d employed similar measures before.</p><p>“Well, except the bounty hunter did,” Nick pointed out.</p><p>Sloane nodded and then looked up when she saw Renard marching towards them, looking on edge. “I need to see you three.” He didn’t stop, moving past them towards his office. They looked at one another but rose and followed him.</p><p>“We got a problem?” Hank asked.</p><p>“We do,” Renard said, closing the door behind them. “My cousin Viktor is back in town with Adalind. And the head of the Verrat.”</p><p>All of them froze a moment, dread filling them.</p><p>“You've seen them?” Nick asked.</p><p>“I have. They know about your mother and that we gave my child to her.”</p><p>“So, they think we know where she is,” Hank surmised.</p><p>“I don't think they care whether we do or not. But they made it very clear they're not leaving without Diana, so I suggest you tell Juliette and watch your backs. I don't know when or where, but they will make a move.”</p><p>“Then let me make a move first,” Sloane said darkly.</p><p>“…Tempting, but they are still on alert after my brother’s death. And if they know about Nick’s mother, they might know about you. I’m hoping not, but it’s possible if Weston was able to tell them before he died there was another female Grimm.”</p><p>“Like I care, after what she did to Nick—” Sloane started.</p><p>“What she did is unforgivable. But I unfortunately understand it. Taking Diana…I wish I had had more time to do it better, but I can’t blame her for it putting her into the Royal’s hands. She’d do anything for Diana, the same as I would…And I’ve done worse things to Adalind to be honest.”</p><p>“Really?” she asked snidely.</p><p>“I slept with her mother. Then told her she was useless when her powers were gone thanks to Nick. Threatened her a couple of times. That was before we conceived Diana.”</p><p>They all gaped and looked at him. “…Okay, how the hell did you two stand each other long enough to—” she started.</p><p>“We have a complicated relationship,” Renard sighed loudly. “But my point is, I know I have been awful to her. It took me going through…breaking Juliette’s curse, helping Nick, and nearly dying to realize how awful I really was.” Nick frowned but he went on. “And even when I said I would do better, when I thought we might…work something out, I still ended up hurting her. What she did to Nick is unforgivable, but I…can’t fault the reason why. Even if I still believe what we did was for the greater good…I don’t want to kill her.”</p><p>Sloane was quiet but then looked at Nick. Nick sighed. “What we do to her will depend on what she does to us now that she’s here. She’s already proved she’ll do anything to get Diana back. That could mean whatever move they make could hurt or kill us or someone close to us. If she attacks, I’m fighting her.”</p><p>“Same,” Hank said. Sloane nodded.</p><p>Renard sighed but nodded as well. “I accept that. Thank you for at least not hunting her down, I know on some level she deserves it…”</p><p>“We need to warn the others,” Nick said. He looked at Sloane. “You can contact my mother, right?”</p><p>She nodded, heading out of the office while Nick and Hank made the others calls. Renard watched her go, and there was an obvious temptation to follow. But he stayed where he was, not wanting to overstep and risk her not trusting him. He’d already contacted a detective who would be arriving the next day to discuss finding Kelly. None of them needed to know that though.</p><p>She went to one of the back rooms where she could still get reception and dialed Kelly’s number. She hanged up after the third ring and dialed again a minute later.</p><p>“Sloane?” Kelly asked, picking up. “What’s up? I usually call you and I just did last week.”</p><p>“Some developments,” Sloane sighed, leaning against the wall. “Adalind is back in Portland. And she knows you have Diana.”</p><p>“…Oh. That could be inconvenient.”</p><p>Sloane wanted to smile. Even now Kelly sounded completely calm, but she had a feeling she was angry. “A bit, yeah. Worse yet, she came with a royal Viktor something-something von…something. And the head of the verrat too.”</p><p>“It’s a regular party…” Kelly sighed.</p><p>“I just wanted to call and warn you. Are you anywhere near us?”</p><p>“Not right now. We stayed in Colorado for a bit and decided to head to Florida when it got too cold. She’s not a fan of the cold, kept turning the heat up wherever we went using her powers.”</p><p>“How is she?”</p><p>“Hitting all her milestones,” Kelly said, voice softening a bit. “And then some.”</p><p>“…Would it be possible to get a picture of her?”</p><p>“Why? Given we’re trying to hide her…”</p><p>“It could come in handy to sway Adalind. And maybe Renard. Plus…Y’know, I think he’d like to have one. You kept your locket with Nick, but he doesn’t have that. I don’t know how much I trust him so keeping him on our side might help.”</p><p>“…I got one I can email you. But if he wants it on his desk he might need to tweak it a bit.”</p><p>“Thanks.”</p><p>“You know, two years ago you wouldn’t give a flying…fork what he wanted,” Kelly pointed out. She almost laughed, knowing she was censoring herself for Diana.</p><p>“Two years ago, I was still as angry and mature as I was when I was a teenager,” Sloane said, sighing. “A lot’s happened since then…”</p><p>Kelly hummed. “I heard about Collin…but I don’t think it was wendigos that got him.”</p><p>“…He brought whatever happened on himself. And dragged Amy and Antonio down with him,” she said quietly.</p><p>“I unfortunately believe that. He’s a lot like his father, Cormac.”</p><p>“I don’t remember him well. Was he…stubborn?”</p><p>“A cantankerous bastard,” she said bluntly. “Shoot, trying not to cuss in front of her…but that describes him best. He had a temper, always thought he was right, sexist…I butted heads with him more than once growing up. Literally, sometimes. Though apparently Cormac’s now in a home to help deal with dementia and his wife and children are…living their lives as normally as possible. Since Collin was the only other Grimm in the family. They’d had a falling out I heard, but they still buried Collin at home in County Cork.”</p><p>“Good for them, honestly,” she sighed.</p><p>“How’s Nick doing?”</p><p>Sloane suddenly blushed just thinking about him and cursed herself. “Uh, good. Good. No big issues besides Adalind showing up. No further issues that we haven’t had before.”</p><p>“…And what about you? You sound a little…off.”</p><p>“Me? No, I’m fine,” she said. “Just, uh…Y’know, taking it one day at a time.”</p><p>“…Okay, that’s good. I’ll send that picture, but I think we’re about at the limit I’d recommend.”</p><p>“Right. Call when you can, we’ll catch up more later.”</p><p>“Later.” She hanged up and Sloane sighed. She had no doubt Kelly could cold read, even over the phone, which made her nervous. Nick’s mom liked Juliette as well after all; so Sloane couldn’t let on that she had feelings for him. It would be too awkward all around.</p><p>Heading back, Nick was getting ready to leave. “Hey. I called Juliette, let her know. I’m going to take off early, I don’t want her coming home alone.”</p><p>Sloane tried to smile. “Such a caring boyfriend…” She meant for it to sound sarcastic. Not wistful. <em>Dammit!</em> “Uh, called your mother. She and Diana are fine, they’re on the other side of the country.”</p><p>“That’s good,” Nick nodded. He didn’t even notice her strange tone it seems, getting his jacket on. Sloane felt somewhat disappointed in that. She didn’t <em>want</em> him to know, but was it really not obvious? It felt sometimes like she was waving neon color flags that said <em>I want you, Nick Burkhardt!</em> Then again, this was the strongest she’d felt for anyone since Collin. Maybe even before then. Maybe Alan Wheeler in 2<sup>nd</sup> grade when he asked to hold her hand at the school assembly.</p><p>
  <em>That’s a random memory…</em>
</p><p>“You okay going home alone?” Nick asked.</p><p>“I’ll be fine,” she said, standing back at attention. “Wu and Hank already leave?”</p><p>“Getting ready to.”</p><p>“Okay…” She felt her phone buzz and looked at it to see Kelly had already sent the photo. She pulled it up and had to smile a little. Diana was about a year old now, sitting up on her own in a heather-gray onesie with wisps of duck-fluff blonde hair. What stood out was her deep purple eyes that almost seemed to glow, and the brightly colored blocks floating around her. “Oh wow…”</p><p>“What?”</p><p>She hesitated but turned her phone around. “I asked your mom to send me a picture of Diana.”</p><p>Nick was surprised then gently took the phone and smiled slightly. “She’s gotten so big…”</p><p>“Yeah…” She quickly saved the picture before Kelly’s auto-delete took it away.</p><p>“Why’d you want a picture?”</p><p>“Leverage. Possibly for Adalind, little bit for Renard. And…to be nice,” she sighed. “We owe him a bit for a lot of what he’s done. Helping get you guys to me, helping with the Wesenrein…”</p><p>Nick frowned but then sighed and nodded. “I still can’t trust him completely but…yeah. He’s come through on some stuff.”</p><p>She nodded. “I’m going to go show him this and I’ll head home after.”</p><p>“Okay. Be safe,” he said, waving as he headed out the door. Sloane watched him go and sighed but headed for Renard’s office. Knocking on the door, he looked up.</p><p>“Larson…” She closed the door. “…Sloane then. Was there something else?”</p><p>“Yeah. Kelly sent something for me to share with you.” She turned her phone around.</p><p>Renard’s eyes widened and he stood, walking over. He reached up and paused, looking at her, but Sloane held up the phone for him to take. He did and looked it over, smiling in a way she never really saw before. “She’s gotten so big…”</p><p>“We said that too,” she chuckled.</p><p>“Is she alright?”</p><p>“Kelly says she’s hitting all her milestones. They’re about as far from Portland as they can get without boarding a plane or boat, so they should be fine.” He nodded, just looking at the picture as if trying to commit it to memory. “…You want to be a dad?”</p><p>Renard scoffed. “Honestly, I didn’t. I thought I’d never have children and was honestly hopeful I wouldn’t. My own father wasn’t a great role model,” he said, sobering a little.</p><p>Sloane was surprised a bit, mostly that they felt the same way. “…Forgive me, but you don’t look like a man who’s hopes have gone up in flames.”</p><p>“Heh, because I’m not. I was shocked hearing about the baby, more so when I saw her. But I did and…I’d honestly never felt like I did before. Not all Hexen or Zauberbiests are the sort who should be parents. Catharine, Adalind’s mother, was…preoccupied with her own looks and desires, though I think she did love Adalind in her own way. Mine was more the exception than the rule—she risked a lot keeping me and more so keeping me safe. Tried to give me a normal life where I felt wanted. But she was still ambitious in her ways, often gone as I got older. I figured it best I don’t have children because my father…the few times I met him, he smiled and seemed happy. But it was a fake happiness. I could tell he didn’t really love me. And I worried that would be my feelings if I had a child. A fake love, or at best, the kind of love you give to a collection. Eric wasn’t raised much better and I think that was another sticking point between us. That a bastard with hexenbiest blood was his equal in his father’s eyes.”</p><p>Sloane stared at him and then at the picture as he zoomed in here and there. “But that didn’t happen? You feeling a fake love, I mean?”</p><p>“No. I looked at Diana and I just felt…happy. For the first time in long time, I just felt pure joy, just holding her and realizing this little girl was as much a part of me as I was of her, in seconds of seeing her. A strange kind of magic maybe, but I don’t mind. And that’s part of why I did what I did. Because I knew the Royals would use her—as a toy, a weapon, a slave, whatever. She would never be Diana, she would only be an asset…It hurt to know I wouldn’t be able to protect her, so I did what I had to and left her with someone who could.”</p><p>She nodded slowly and then held out her hand. Renard sighed but gave her the phone back. “I’ll have to figure out photoshop. Get rid of the blocks and stuff. Make sure it can’t be traced. But then I can probably send it to you.”</p><p>He was surprised but then smiled that smile again. “I would appreciate that. Thank you.” She smiled back.</p><p>They jumped when Wu opened the door, panting. “Oh good, you’re both still here,” he said. “We got another murder, same MO!”</p><p>---------------------</p><p>The street was wet with rain, but without it currently raining the smell of the garbage in the alley was a lot worse. Wu got a hold of Hank and Nick and got them to come back before leading them to the scene. In a side alley in one of the sketchier parts of town. The ladies of the night had vanished though when all the flashing lights came through. Now the only regular left was a dead man—Shorn head, leather jacket, ugly shirt that now had a large bloody hole in it.</p><p> “Got a pretty significant record, if you're interested, but it's mostly vice stuff, started pimping about six years ago, based on his first pandering charge. Not sure who that belongs to yet,” he said, pointing at a dropped burner phone.</p><p>“Run the numbers, check for prints,” Nick sighed.</p><p>“I guess our bounty hunter hasn't left town,” Hank said.</p><p>“I didn’t realize being a pimp was an offense to the council. It’s the world’s second oldest profession,” Sloane said.</p><p>“Second?”</p><p>“The first is being the actual sex-worker,” Sloane reminded him. He nodded, not arguing.</p><p>“One of his girls was working the corner,” Wu said. “She witnessed the attack. Found her hiding behind a dumpster pretty freaked out. Not sure she's gonna be much help. She is positive she just saw the devil in the flesh.”</p><p>“Not that far from the truth,” Hank said, as Nick’s phone rang with a verse from Elton John’s <em>The Fox</em>.</p><p>“Rosalee,” he greeted as he answered.</p><p>“We just heard back from the Council,” she said.</p><p>“It's not good, dude,” Monroe chimed in. “Is Sloane there?”</p><p>He sighed but motioned Sloane over. She joined him and he put them on speaker. “What did the council say?”</p><p>“They basically told us to stay out of their business,” Rosalee said, obviously annoyed.</p><p>“Like, totally out of it, including not helping you two! And they said there would be penalties if we didn't comply.”</p><p>“So, the Council sanctioned the kills,” Nick said.</p><p>“Whatever. Suffice it to say they know what's going on,” Monroe agreed.</p><p> “That complicates things,” Sloane said, annoyed.</p><p>“A bit more because we've got another body,” Nick informed them.</p><p>“Oh, God, Nick,” Rosalee groaned.</p><p>“If this is a Wesen bounty hunter, he's still working. Look, you two stay out of this. Let us deal with it. And I'm sorry; I know this isn't a nice way to come back from a honeymoon.”</p><p>“Nick, Sloane, seriously, you don't want to piss off the Wesen Council, not any more than you already have,” Monroe said. “Can't you find somebody else to handle this one?”</p><p>“Like who? I don’t dislike the other detectives enough to do that to them,” Sloane said.</p><p>“Yeah, you know that's not gonna happen.”</p><p>He sighed. “I do. I do know that. Be on your guard, okay?”</p><p>“If they're using a Maréchaussée, killing is their business. He's not gonna let you arrest him. So just be careful,” Rosalee agreed.</p><p>“We will,” Nick said.</p><p>“We’ll let you know if anything does happen, but not till then. We don’t want you guys getting in trouble on our account,” Sloane said.</p><p>“I’ll be honest, I’m not a fan how the council is handling this,” Monroe said.</p><p>“Me neither. But we’ll talk to you later.”</p><p>“Later,” Nick and Sloane said, ending the call.</p><p>They looked around the scene a bit more but with the rain and general filth there wasn’t much to more to find. So, heading back, they went through what information they could on the computers at the precinct. Including the new tox report on their first two victims.</p><p>“"Toxicity report concludes the victims died from an excessive dose of neurotoxins and enzyme inhibitors associated with the family Buthidae, the closest match being"...” Hank read.</p><p>“Scorpion venom,” Nick finished, looking up from the photos from their latest scene.</p><p>“So, definitely a manticore. If only catching him was as easy to figure out,” Sloane sighed.</p><p>“Gentlemen—and Lady—we have hit a little pay dirt: not one but two clear prints, one not belonging to the owner of the cell phone,” he said, setting the phone in its bag on Nick’s desk. He then held up a folder. “And we were able to get a match: Mr. Jonathon Wilde from Archer City, Texas. Two arrests, one for murder, identified by witnesses, but charges were dropped due to lack of evidence and no known association with his victims.” Sloane took the file and looked at it. The picture was of a Caucasian man in his late 40s, early 50s, with a crew cut of salt and pepper hair and brown eyes. He didn’t stand out really, which Sloane knew made him much more effective in slipping in and out to kill someone.</p><p>“How did the victim die?” Hank asked.</p><p>“Neurotoxins and enzyme inhibitors associated with...”</p><p>“Scorpions,” They all said together.</p><p>“Okay, we've got our guy,” Nick said, looking over the file and the picture. “What do we know?”</p><p>“Well, I did a little looking into this type of hit and pulled up half a dozen scattered from Bangor, Maine, to San Diego, California, all unsolved, but I did manage to find motor vehicles registered to Wilde: one for a motorcycle, one for a truck, APBs on both,” Wu said.</p><p>“…Okay, why aren’t you a detective?” Sloane asked.</p><p>“I…have test anxiety, it’s an ongoing thing,” he sighed.</p><p>“We might need to work on that,” Nick said. “But for now, make sure it goes wide in case he's on his way back to Texas.”</p><p>“Already done,” He said.</p><p>“At least this time we've got prints tying him to the scene,” Hank said.</p><p>------------</p><p>Rosalee sighed as she ate dinner, eating slowly. Monroe frowned back worriedly. “You okay, babe?”</p><p>She tried to smile but then gave up and sighed again. “No…I’m pissed off!”</p><p>“At the council?”</p><p>“Yes! I mean, I understand on some level where they’re coming from. We have certain rules to protect us. Like don’t woge in public, or for personal gain. But what’s so different from what the circus did to what those fortune tellers did? The humans had no idea they were Wesen, they thought it was mysticism! But now they’re dead. And now someone else is. And just asking questions can get us “penalties” now?”</p><p>“Well, I agree it’s BS, but I think helping Nick and Sloane is what they’re more concerned with in our case…”</p><p>“Well that’s worse!” she said, throwing up her hands. “We help them because they work hard to keep the peace! And when you were kidnapped, the council was no help! They turn a blind eye to these organizations when they could be cracking down on them. It was Nick and Sloane and the rest of our friends working to get you back.”</p><p>“Yeah, I admit, I’m a little salty about that too…But I don’t know what to do, honestly. It’s not like an HOA or anything, we didn’t opt in or pay dues. They’re just…there. They’ve always been there. Heck, you and your dad had direct lines with them.”</p><p>“And I regret it now,” she huffed. “I put a lot of faith in them before, to the point I told them about the Graussen and put that boy at risk. But I have more faith in Nick and Sloane now…”</p><p>“I do too,” he said, putting his hand on hers. “But I know too they don’t want us putting ourselves in danger for them…”</p><p>She sighed and nodded, knowing he was right. It just angered her more though that the council was threatening them about helping their friends keep other people safe and find justice! She took a few more bites before her phone rang. They looked at one another but she stood and went over to answer it. “Rosalee Calvert speaking…”</p><p>“Ms. Calvert. It’s Alexander.”</p><p>She froze and then turned and mouthed his name at Monroe who stood up as well. She put him on speaker. “If this is about my call to the council, we haven’t done anything wrong—”</p><p>“I know. Please, calm down, I’m not calling to make any threats. Mr. De Groot and I don’t agree with council’s assessment of your situation.”</p><p>“You don’t?” Monroe asked.</p><p>“No. While I normally share their estimation of Grimms, the two you’ve allied yourself with are exceptions. We aren’t blind to the good you all have done in your city, and for the council itself.”</p><p>“That’s…nice, thank you,” Rosalee said honestly.</p><p>“I’m afraid I’ve done nothing worthy of thanks. You see, there’s a bigger problem. As I’ve said, the council doesn’t share our opinion. To them, Mr. Burkhardt and Ms. Larson have been hindrances in council business. Because of that, they have put bounties on them.”</p><p>“What?!” they both gasped.</p><p>“Can’t you do something?” Rosalee asked.</p><p>“Unfortunately, no. We’re middlemen and the council doesn’t hold our opinion very highly either,” he said, his cool exterior dropping slightly with a tone of bitterness. “The best I could do at the moment was to call you and warn you, so you may warn them. This alone could mean my own head if they find out…”</p><p>“I’m getting a little sick of the council’s penalties,” Monroe said.</p><p>“We appreciate the warning, Alexander. We’ll let them know.”</p><p>“Thank you. I have a feeling they will be alright, but all of you watch out.”</p><p>“We will.” He hanged up and Rosalee was immediately dialing Sloane’s number.</p><p>-----------</p><p>And having that information they were able to find was the break they needed. Nick got a call about an hour after putting the APB out that Wilde’s motorcycle was found in the parking lot of the Beacon Motel, and they found him registered there in room 12. It was a bit more awkward that, when they went to pull him in, he’d been in his boxers clipping his toenails. Not exactly the most intimidating way to find a killer, but Wu had a shotgun trained on him as they ordered him to get down on the ground so they could cuff him. He seemed to be actually freaking out.</p><p>“What are you doing? I didn't do anything!” he yelled. Hank finished cuffing him and pulled up onto his feet.</p><p>Nick glared; his gun trained on him. “You're a Manticore!”</p><p>“What? What are you talking about? Oh!” He gasped as Nick pulled him from Hank and rammed him into the wall. Sloane jumped a little, not expecting it from Nick.</p><p>“Did he woge?” Hank asked.</p><p>“Not yet,” Nick said. He pulled him back and smacked him into the wall again, making him grunt.</p><p>“Nick!” Wu yelled, also shocked.</p><p>“Why are you doing this?” Wilde yelled, sounding convincingly on the verge of tears.</p><p>“I know what you are,” Nick growled. He pulled him back again, but Hank quickly got between them and pushed them apart.</p><p>“Hey, Nick, that's enough!” he said, keeping them apart. “He's under arrest. We're taking him in.”</p><p>Nick huffed but backed off. They did let Wilde get dressed under supervision, and then took him to the station and into an interrogation room. Not once did he woge, and he was believably antsy about the whole situation.</p><p>“What if he's the wrong guy?” Wu asked, looking at him through the glass. “What if he's not the Manticore?”</p><p>“He is the Manticore,” Nick said.</p><p>“Then why didn't he woge? He doesn't know you're a Grimm. Or Sloane.” He glanced at her and she opened her mouth, but Nick cut in.</p><p>“He's a professional. He's smart. I'll get him to woge,” he said, heading out the door.</p><p>Wu watched him go then looked at them again. “Has this ever happened before?”</p><p>“Someone not woging in front of us or Nick apparently channeling a hardass cop from TV?” Sloane asked, eyeing him as he left.</p><p>“Uh…both? I mean, all we've really got is one fingerprint. That doesn't prove he's the Manticore.”</p><p>She sighed. “The first one can happen, if the wesen is poised enough to really control their woging. The second one…”</p><p>Hank sighed as well. “I better go in there,” he said, heading out to catch up to Nick after he entered the room.</p><p>Sloane thought about going in as well, but her phone rang with Rosalee’s ring tone. She took it out and stepped back so she could watch but still talk. “Hey, Rosalee. We’re a little busy right now—”</p><p>“We just got a call from Alexander,” she said quickly.</p><p>She blinked then frowned deeply. “What? Why?”</p><p>“He wanted to warn us—warn you, really. The council has put bounties on <em>your</em> heads! You and Nick.”</p><p>Sloane glared. “Oh, they did, huh?”</p><p>“Yes. And I’m sure they’ve sent it to the Maréchaussée in town.”</p><p>“Well, maybe we’ll ask. He’s in the interrogation room right now.”</p><p>“You got him?” Monroe asked in surprise.</p><p>“We’re pretty sure. I say pretty sure because the asshole won’t woge…”</p><p>“Be careful,” Rosalee said. “If they want him to go after you two they might think he can take you down.”</p><p>“Or he was convenient. I’m hoping that’s the reason,” Monroe said.</p><p>“Either way, he’s going to get more than he bargained for.” She looked up when she heard a loud bang and saw Nick had tried to lunge for Wilde over the table. “…I need to get back to this though. Thanks for letting us know, I’ll make sure we’re on our guard.”</p><p>“Okay. Keep us updated.”</p><p>“We will.” She hanged up.</p><p>Turning back time slightly, Nick had entered the room and gone to loom over their suspect with a deep glare. “We have your fingerprint, puts you at the scene of the crime,” Nick said.</p><p>“What scene of the crime?” Wilde asked. Sloane didn’t disagree that he must be there man(ticore) but he was very good at acting.</p><p>Nick leaned in, his eyes and voice becoming intense. “How much was he worth, huh? How much did you get paid?”</p><p>“I didn't get paid anything!” They both looked up when Hank entered the room and he sighed. “All right, look, I paid for a hooker tonight if that's what this is about, but I didn't kill anybody.”</p><p>“You kill people for a living,” Nick said. “You're a bounty hunter, a Maréchaussée, and you work for the Wesen Council.”</p><p>“What are you talking about, man?! You're crazy!”</p><p>He moved as if to lunge for him, and Hank quickly put a hand on his chest to stop him. “Nick! Let's just lock him up.”</p><p>“I didn't do anything wrong!”</p><p>Wu sighed and looked at Sloane when she was off the phone while they went to get a bailiff. “You don’t want to go in there?”</p><p>“Had to take that phone call. And I…wanted to watch Nick,” she admitted.</p><p>“…How he’s acting worries you too?”</p><p>“A little,” she sighed. “After the Wesenrein incident and now this…I don’t blame him for being a little on edge. I feel it too, when you know a murderer is right there and he’s acting all innocent! But…he’s usually more collected than this.”</p><p>“Yeah…What was that call about?”</p><p>She sighed again. “Rosalee got a call from someone we know that contacts the council more directly. He’s…I don’t know if I’d say friend, but we’ve worked with him in the past and I think we have an understanding now. But the point is, the council doesn’t like me and Nick apparently. They’ve put a price on our heads.”</p><p>“What?” Wu asked, eyes widening.</p><p>“Yep. Must’ve just happened, so I don’t know if this guy would know is the problem…”</p><p>Wu nodded, frowning. “I’m going to go look at his tablet again, see if I can crack it. You might take a crack at Nick if you’re worried.”</p><p>She smiled a bit and nodded. Nick and Hank were following the bailiff out, so she followed them.</p><p>“This isn't right. I'm innocent!” Wilde yelled as he was put in a cell, the door locked. “You're making a mistake!”</p><p>“Do not go near this guy under any circumstances,” Nick told the Bailiff. “You understand?”</p><p>He looked confused but nodded. “Yes, sir.”</p><p>Nick nodded back and walked out of the holding area with Hank, obviously agitated still. “Nick, can we talk?” Sloane said.</p><p>“Bit busy right now, Sloane,” he snapped.</p><p>Sloane arched an eyebrow and reached out, grabbing him by his jacket collar and with her strength he nearly tripped as he tried to keep walking. “Let me rephrase: Burkhardt, we are having a chat. Now,” she ordered. Nick was wise enough not to resist and followed her back to one of the rooms. “Okay, what is up with you?”</p><p>“Up with me? Nothing! I’m trying to do my job!”</p><p>“So am I and I’m not throwing people into walls!”</p><p>“He’s the manticore and you know it!”</p><p>“I do! I’m not disagreeing with you! But you…you are acting like me!”</p><p>Nick blinked. “What?”</p><p>“You are acting like me, the me when I first got here. You’re yelling and threatening and throwing people around and that is not the Nick Burkhardt that got me to be friends with wesen and think about them like people. If this happened then, you would be approaching this like a-a puzzle in there instead of trying to force it and outright fight him.”</p><p>“…If he doesn’t woge, I can’t confirm it and stop this.”</p><p>“<em>We</em> can’t confirm it and stop it,” she reminded him. He looked down and she sighed. “Nick…talk to me, what is wrong?”</p><p>“…” he sighed and sat down against the table. “Just…a lot.”</p><p>“With this case?”</p><p>“Yes…and other stuff.”</p><p>“…Okay, I opened up to you <em>a lot</em> in the last two years. You can do the same,” she said, getting impatient.</p><p>“…Something’s up with Juliette,” he finally admitted. “She’s been acting strange for weeks. Ever since what happened with the Wesenrein. She’s been distant and distracted and…hasn’t wanted to…” He cleared his throat and made a vague waving motion with his hand.</p><p>She blushed, feeling that stab of jealousy again but nodded. “Gotcha. So…your frustrated?”</p><p>“What? I mean, yes, but not like—” He blushed as well. “I’m worried. She had to kill a man that night and she said she’s doing okay, but…Ever since I first became a Grimm, I worried about it catching up with <em>her</em>, not me. And we’ve been through so much together, and I thought after what happened with Adalind we could survive anything else…I just wonder if it was the straw that broke the camel’s back. If she’s pulling away and it’s just a matter of time before she…leaves.”</p><p>Sloane looked at him and felt her heart constrict. It wasn’t that he was talking about Juliette though. It was how…sad and defeated he looked. How his own heart was breaking. If Sloane wanted, maybe she could nudge him that he should leave her first. Safety reasons. Hell, she’d thought about it when they first met just because it really was dangerous for Juliette. But now she couldn’t’ say it was for unselfish reasons she’d push them apart. And furthermore, she didn’t want Nick to hurt. She didn’t want his heart to break. Nick was the annoyingly good one, the heart of gold but do what it takes sort of Grimm. She didn’t want that to change. And if Juliette could keep that Nick alive…</p><p>She sighed and sat next to him. “I…don’t know what to say. This isn’t my strong suit. But Juliette isn’t some shrinking violet. If she hasn’t left you yet, I think she also wants to figure it out. Maybe she just…has a lot on her plate too, with everything that’s happened. Or maybe she is rethinking things. But I’d just say then, you at least gotta try and talk with her and see what she is thinking instead of assuming the worst. I mean isn’t that what all those relationship guys say? Communicate? I think that’s what they say but honestly, that sounds awful.”</p><p>Nick huffed, trying to smile. “Yeah, it’s easier said than done.”</p><p>“You’re telling <em>me</em> that? Me, who had been emotionally constipated for 20 years before I came here and would rather fight things with claws and teeth the size of my fingers than talk about my feelings? Till you butted in? Take some responsibility, Burkhardt, for making me feel things,” she said sardonically. It was so, so close to what she really wanted to say.</p><p>Nick smiled more genuinely now and laughed. “Fair…Maybe we really did switch personalities.”</p><p>“Then we’re switching back. I like badass Nick, but mean Nick is a jerk.”</p><p>“Was I that bad?” he asked, frowning worriedly.</p><p>“You slammed a man in his underwear against a wall till he nearly cried, calling him a murderous manticore. While I think he is a manticore and lying through his teeth, it is not a good look and you’re lucky no other officers were in the room to call you out on being crazy,” she said bluntly.</p><p>“Ah, yeah…” Nick said, also cringing when she put it that way. “The other thing though is this whole council situation. I mean, they said they might punish Monroe and Rosalee for helping us.”</p><p>“Yeah, well, they try anything and I’m going to find them and send them an article on us busting up the “cult” and say the last group of asshole wesen that tried to hurt our friends ended up dead or in jail…With one of those masks I might of kept and put a bullet in for fun.”</p><p>Nick grinned a bit. “Yeah, you are still better being the scary Grimm.”</p><p>“I got more practice,” she said, bumping their shoulders together. “But I prefer you not being the more level-headed one, so talk if you need to vent.”</p><p>“I’ll keep that in mind,” he sighed.</p><p>“I understand being upset with all this by the way. I want to put my fist through his face too. But we’ll get through this. No one is going to break <em>us </em>up. So just…breathe, okay. We’ll get this guy, but we can’t be yelling at him and trying to force him to woge with people in earshot.”</p><p>He took a deep breath and nodded. “You’re right… Thanks, Sloane. I appreciate the talk.”</p><p>She smiled and stood. “Good. C’mon then, back to work.” He nodded and stood, following her out.</p><p>Hank was waiting by the desk and looked up at them. “Hey, everything okay?”</p><p>“Yeah, just…needed to vent,” Nick said.</p><p>Hank nodded, noting he seemed calmer. Wu came rushing up then, a tablet in hand.  “I just cracked Wilde's iPad. You got to see this,” he said. They gathered around him and watched as he brought up a picture viewer. The first was a wanted poster for Mable and Laszlo Kurlon with some candid photos of them and a price of €20,000. Then the next picture was of them dead in their shop. Then poster of Casey Darwell, also €20,000. Then a picture of him dead in the alley. Each poster had seals up at the top that noted it was from the Wesen Council.</p><p>“That puts him at the crime scenes,” Hank said.</p><p>“That may be all we need,” Hank nodded.</p><p>“Hold on. You got to see this,” Wu said, brow creased in worry. The next poster was one with a picture of Nick. It had his name and <em>Grimm</em> below that, and then a bounty of €100,000. Nick’s eyes widened. Then Wu flipped it again and a poster of Sloane came up, similar to his but set at €200,000. “That's why he didn't woge. He knows who you are. Both of you. It’s like you said, Sloane, except they must’ve been sent out earlier.”</p><p>“Like she said?” Nick asked.</p><p>“Yeah, I almost forgot when we talked,” she sighed. “Monroe and Rosalee called while you were in the interrogation room. Alexander gave them a heads up that the Council put a bounty on us. They didn’t mention how much though…I guess we’re worth a lot more.”</p><p>Nick looked very troubled, as did Hank and Wu, though Hank looked at Sloane curiously. “Why’s your bounty higher?”</p><p>“You forget I have a richly woven history of killing a shit ton of wesen,” she said matter-of-factly. “I’m sure they’ve figured that out. Maybe I was on there before, who knows…”</p><p>“Should we tell the captain?”</p><p>“Probably,” Nick sighed.</p><p>“You guys go on ahead, I need to hit the restroom,” Sloane sighed. They nodded and she headed to the restroom. Once there, she checked to make sure she was alone and then quickly pulled out her phone and pulled up her directory under J. She waited as it rang.</p><p>“Sloane?”</p><p>“Hey, Jacob,” Sloane said, smiling.</p><p>“Hey! What’s up? If you responded to our last email, I’m sorry, I’ve been swamped with work…”</p><p>“I did but I figured.” She’d given Jacob and Melinda her new personal email after Idaho. But only Jacob reached out a few weeks after. Melinda was still quiet. Even so, after catching up some more on what they were honestly up to these days, they’d taken to regularly keeping each other up to date and chatting. “This is actually more of a favor request…”</p><p>“Uh oh, what happened?” he asked worriedly.</p><p>“You’ve heard of the Wesen Council, I’m sure?”</p><p>“Ugh, yeah…Wes has had to deal with them a couple of times. Fussy old jerks…why?”</p><p>“They’ve put a bounty on me and Nick.”</p><p>“What?! Oh God, that’s not good…how much?”</p><p>“Does it matter?” she asked, arching her brow.</p><p>“No, I guess not, but I mean…bragging rights?”</p><p>“…I’m higher than Nick, that’s all I’ll say.”</p><p>“That a girl! So, what can I do from here? Unless you want me to come there…”</p><p>“No, that’s not necessary.”</p><p>“Oh, thank God,” he breathed.</p><p>“I was hoping if I gave you an email address you might be able to trace it.”</p><p>“Oh, hacking help. Okay, that I’m happy to do. What’s the address?”</p><p>“Wesencouncil@mymail.com”</p><p>“…You’re joking.”</p><p>“No?”</p><p>“That’s so basic! Just Wesen Council? And MyMail? That’s even more basic, that’s like barely above a 90s AOL account!”</p><p>“Well, you said they were fussy old jerks,” she said, a little amused.</p><p>“I didn’t think they were <em>that</em> kind of fussy and old. Yeesh, the Libraries have some stupid old timey spy drama stuff, but at least they try to keep up with the tech trends…”</p><p>“Well regardless, can you track it?”</p><p>“Ah…well, now I’m realizing why they might choose it. MyMail is basic but it does use a lot of tricks to keep it private. I should still be able to get in though. What do you want from it?”</p><p>“Any names you can give me for who uses it, or other valuable information. I’d like to make a direct statement on why they need to leave us, <em>and</em> Monroe and Rosalee alone.”</p><p>“Oh, they threatened your wesen?”</p><p>“They said there would be “penalties” if they keep helping us. After all they’ve been through, I’m not letting someone get away with even vaguely threatening them,” she said seriously.</p><p>“Okay, I’ll see what I can find. On a side note, if I wasn’t gay as hell, that voice would be a little bit of a turn on.”</p><p>Sloane rolled her eyes but smiled. “Thanks, I guess. What can I do in return?”</p><p>“You still don’t just accept favors, huh?”</p><p>“More like I’d prefer you knowing I appreciate it,” she said sweetly.</p><p>“Aw. I’ll send you my Amazon wish list.”</p><p>She snorted. “Alright. Thanks, Jacob.”</p><p>“Sure thing. Talk to you when I have something.”</p><p>“Talk to you then.” She hanged up and sighed, putting her phone back in her jacket. Rolling up her sleeves, she walked over to splash a little water on her face, trying to calm down. She didn’t blame Nick for his anger. She’d been feeling it all evening. But she’d kept it under control. She hoped Nick would too.</p><p>Blindly she reached and grabbed a paper towel from the dispenser right next to the sink. When she stood to wipe the water from her face, she looked up and saw Wilde in the mirror behind her. Her eyes widened as he woged and she just barely threw herself to the side as his tail hit the mirror where her back had been just a moment before, cracking it. He tried to swipe at her again and she moved inward instead, punching him across the face. He shook his head, huffing and baring his teeth.</p><p>“Not used to someone fighting back?” She said. He roared and moved for her again and she opened the stall door next to her before he could try and strike her again. Sloane then broke the door from its hinges and swung it around to try and flatten him. He jumped back, obviously shocked, and woged back. “C’mon, jackass, let’s go!”  He glared but then grabbed a trashcan by the door and threw it at her. Sloane used the door as a shield again, but it forced her back and her head hit the wall and made her shout. She was dazed but still standing, holding the door in front of her as she tried to get her bearings. But another blow didn’t come even as she waited almost a minute. She put it down to see he was gone. “Shit!” Rushing out, she looked around, but he had somehow slipped away. She paused when she saw a paper on the ground of the bathroom and picked it up. Her blood ran cold when she saw it was part of Nick’s employee file—and she knew another part would have his address on it. She looked up to see Wu was rushing towards Renard’s office and she quickly headed over as well.</p><p>He opened the door to the office, and she could see Renard, Nick and Hank inside. “Suspect got out!”</p><p>“Hell yeah he did!” Sloane said, making him jump. The others quickly came to the door. “He just attacked me in the women’s room!”</p><p>“What?” Renard said, marching forward. “Are you alright?”</p><p>“Yeah, I fought back. There was some property damage, but he ended up getting way,” she growled in frustration.</p><p>“Well, you were lucky,” Wu said, motioning for them to follow. They headed back to the holding area and Hank hissed when he saw the dead guard on the ground.</p><p>“Dammit,” Renard said, glaring. “I should’ve known, should’ve put someone else in here…”</p><p>“Bigger problem,” Sloane said, holding up the paper. “He got into the employee files and I’m betting he has our addresses.”</p><p>“What?” Nick gasped.</p><p>Renard then turned and looked at Nick. “He'll be coming after you next, Nick…He likely targeted Sloane first to try and hurt you or show off, after what happened in the interrogation room and hotel.”</p><p>Nick’s eyes widened then he turned to run out, grabbing his phone. “I'm going home! Juliette's there!”</p><p>“Nick!” Sloane said, but he was on the phone, stopping only to grab his jacket before running out the door like a fire was at his heels, faster than most humans. A lot of other officers watched him go in confusion.</p><p>“Wu, help me damage control here,” Renard ordered. “You two, go after him—we don’t know what Wilde might do.” They nodded and rushed for the door. By the time they got outside his car was already speeding away. Sloane and Hank both quickly got to her car and she sped out just as fast.</p><p>Nick’s car was parked outside his house when they skidded up and rushed out. Hank had his weapon drawn as the front door was open and Sloane had her knife. “Nick?! Juliette?!” Sloane called.</p><p>“In here,” Nick called. They quickly came through and then their defenses dropped when they saw Wilde on the floor.</p><p>“What the…” Hank asked. “You got him?”</p><p>“No, no…Juliette did,” Nick said, looking a bit shell shocked still. He had his arms around Juliette.</p><p>“What?” Sloane asked, looking at her in surprise.</p><p>“He missed. I was lucky,” she said again, apparently tried of saying it.</p><p>“Yeah, real lucky,” Hank said, holstering his gun. “You’re okay?”</p><p>“Yeah. He slapped me but I think I’ll just have a bruise.”</p><p>Nick still reflexively held her a little tighter, but she looked a bit uncomfortable. Sloane put her knife back in her sheathe and walked forward. Kneeling, she frowned when she saw the wound. It was just like the wounds on Wilde’s victims. Conical in shape, a bit of discoloration at the deepest part. But it looked disturbed too, like something had been shoved in after the first wound was made. <em>He…was stabbed with his own tail?</em> <em>Then something else? </em>“What did you kill him with?”</p><p>“The fireplace poker,” Juliette said, nodding to the poker on the floor. There was indeed blood on it, but there was no way it made this wound. She looked at Juliette, trying to put the pieces together. “…What?”</p><p>“…Nothing. Just…impressed,” Sloane said, standing. “Good job and I’m glad you’re okay.”</p><p>“Thanks,” she said, though she looked tired.</p><p>“What should we do with him?” Hank asked.</p><p>“I don’t want to drag Juliette more into this,” Nick said, looking worried.</p><p>Sloane sighed and took out her phone. “I’ll take care of it…but we can use this too.”</p><p>“Use it?...You want to send it to the council?”</p><p>“They seem to like pictures of dead people,” she said snidely, taking the photo. “I asked Jacob to run a search on the email Wilde was sending these to. Once I have that information, I’m going to make it really clear what the council and any other Maréchaussée can expect if they want to come here after us. Or if they take it out on Monroe and Rosalee.”</p><p>Nick nodded, not looking perturbed by the idea in the slightest. “Put my name on it too.”</p><p>“I will. I’ll also take care of this, if you can help me get him to the car.”</p><p>Nick hesitated, looking at Juliette who patted his arm. “Go on…I’d rather he be gone as soon as possible.”</p><p>He nodded and he and Hank helped Sloane pick him up and take him around the side. Sloane backed her car up then and they quickly put him in the back and covered him up. It was late enough that no one was out so hopefully they weren’t seen. “You sure you got this?” Hank asked.</p><p>“I haven’t done it in a while, but I can manage. The library is down but I did find out there are some…disposal depots still open. They specialize in making Grimm kills disappear, for a price.”</p><p>“What price?”</p><p>“I’ve got it,” Sloane said again. “Just…focus on Juliette right now.”</p><p>“I’ll call the captain, let him know what happened,” Hank said, pulling out his phone.</p><p>“Thanks. Both of you,” Nick sighed. Sloane nodded and climbed into the car to drive off. Something didn’t sit right with her about what happened—Grimm reflexes were a match for Wilde, but how could Juliette not get hurt? Luck was one thing, but to not get the stinger, then stab him was something a Grimm would do. Stabbing him with his own tail would be hard considering the strength in that appendage. What was Juliette hiding?</p><p>She sighed and shook her head. Maybe she wasn’t hiding anything. Maybe she was lucky and maybe she did make that wound with a poker somehow. Maybe Sloane was letting her feelings cloud her judgement. Prejudice used to do that, now maybe jealousy was her new vice. But she was resolved not to force Nick and Juliette apart for selfish reasons. Even if she’d wished that Nick had been just as concerned about her when Wilde attacked. Maybe held her…<em>God I’m pathetic.</em></p><p>She drove to the funeral home Gallin had once worked at for a day job. Driving around the side, she got out and knocked on the door. “Anyone here? I have a drop off.”</p><p>There was a pause before a light turned on in a window upstairs and a head pocked out. It was hard to see in the night, so she expanded her sight. It was an old man with a jowly face and gray hair, wearing glasses. “Name?”</p><p>“Sloane Larson. I have a manticore to get rid of.”</p><p>“Ah, Cynthia mentioned you once…Manticore? Good job then, nasty bastards. Be right down.” He closed the window. A few moments later the door opened. Sloane went and opened the trunk, pulling Wilde’s body out and over her shoulder. The man waited for her and she walked through. “Oh good, he’s not dripping blood. Had someone bring a dripper once and I had to wash spots of blood out of the carpet for days.”</p><p>“No, pretty clean wound,” Sloane said. She followed him to an elevator, then down to the morgue below.</p><p>“Good. I’m Stanley, by the way. Just Stanley, if you don’t mind.” He flipped on the lights and she saw the prep room, complete with a walk-in freezer on one side and a few prep tables. “Set him on the table and we’ll get around to him later tonight. We’ll get him in with the cremations tomorrow.”</p><p>She walked over and set him down on the steel drain table. “Thanks, I appreciate it.”</p><p>“Of course. Do you hear from Cynthia often?”</p><p>“On occasion. She’s doing well in Texas, and at school,” Sloane said conversationally, going through Wilde’s pockets on habit. She found his wallet, keys to his motorcycle, and a few other odds and ends that he must’ve taken from evidence when he was snooping through their employee files. She took his credit cards and cash and kept the keys but put the wallet back with him. His clothes would be burned as well and then scattered in the woods. She wished she’d known about it when she was disposing of the Muse so long ago, it would’ve saved her a lot of sweat and time.</p><p>“Well, I envy her a bit. Wish I’d broken from tradition when I was younger, did what I wanted. But too deep now…”</p><p>“Well, we do appreciate it,” Sloane said.</p><p>He smiled. “You’re surprisingly polite for what I was told.”</p><p>“I have my moments. I need to keep going though. Oh, how do I pay you with the Library closed?”</p><p>“I’ll give you my price and transfer information.” He walked over to a desk to write it down.</p><p>“Okay… real quick, you deal with Manticores a lot?”</p><p>“Oh, I’ve seen a few. There’s not a lot of disposals in Oregon so we get a lot of traffic.”</p><p>She nodded and pointed to the wound. “Does this look like a manticore wound to you?”</p><p>He looked and then frowned, adjusting his glasses. “Huh…yeah, it does actually…Wait, didn’t you kill him?”</p><p>“He tried to kill a friend, but they ended up killing him. Said she did it with a fireplace poker.”</p><p>“Huh…well, not sure what kind of poker she claims she used, but that is definitely a manticore wound.”</p><p>“That’s what I thought…Thank you, Stanley, I’ll handle it from here.”</p><p>“Of course. Say hi to Cynthia for me—I don’t used a lot of those electric doohickeys so it’s mostly postcards.”</p><p>Sloane nodded and headed out again, sighing. On the way home, she got a text and when she parked in her driveway she read it.</p><p>Jacob: <em>Sent what Info I could get, they’re not as stupid as I thought. But we got a few names and addresses of where it was accessed. Think that’s enough for now? I can keep working on it.</em></p><p>Sloane smiled and looked over the information he emailed her.</p><p>Sloane<em>: This is good for now, I’ll let you know if we need more. Bounty hunter ended up being the hunted and is dead. I’ll let them know.</em></p><p>Jacob<em>: Oh, I want to see whatever message you send, this should be good!</em></p><p>--------------------</p><p>Alexander knocked on De Groot’s office door politely. “Come in,” he said. He stepped through and De Groot looked him over, noting the file in his hands. He sighed and sat back, remembering their conversation just the other day regarding the Council’s decision to put bounties on Nick Burkhardt and Sloane Larson. His assertions that they were not like other Grimms fell on deaf ears. Alexander had agreed they were making a mistake, but no one listened. “You've heard from our bounty hunter?”</p><p>“Yes,” Alexander nodded.</p><p>“The Grimm is dead?” He sighed.</p><p>Alexander got a strange sort of smile on his face. “Not exactly.” He opened the folder and held it out to show a picture of Wilde dead on the floor.</p><p>De Groot was surprised, taking it to look over. Well, he wasn’t that surprised to be honest—between the two of them, those Grimms were a powerful force. “Well, I hope the Council doesn't take this personally…”</p><p>“The bigger concern is the Grimms, I’m afraid,” Alexander sighed, though he was still smiling. He brought out his iPad then. “This was sent with that photo. A message, from Sloane Larson. Both were sent to the Wesen Council’s email.”</p><p>He held the iPad out and De Groot took it. The still showed Larson sitting in front of her phone recording, looking very displeased. He pressed play and she smiled pleasantly as she started speaking.</p><p>“Dear Wesen Council,</p><p>“Hi. We haven’t been formally introduced, but I’m Sloane Larson. And I’m here to address some resent events you’ve put into motion.</p><p>“Now, I get it. I’m a Grimm. Grimm and wesen fight. But I find your choices particularly galling considering what me, and my fellow Grimm, Nick Burkhardt have done for <em>you.</em> We discovered the graussen is a parasite, give you a way to treat it so no one else—especially children—have to die. We ID that Krampus is a wesen who doesn’t know he’s a wesen and help identify one but don’t kill him, so that you can keep looking into this and keep the public safe with no further deaths. We help with a carnival pushing its performers into umkippen. We help you rescue the remains of a mummified wesen and give it a funeral. And oh yeah, we break up a wesen hate group <em>you</em> didn’t do anything about despite killing other wesen. I find your inaction on that particularly concerning for many reasons, not the least of which it seems one of its members is a relation to one of yours. More on that later.</p><p>“We didn’t do any of that to get your praise or be compensated. We did all those things because we felt they were right and were for a greater good. And sometimes, because our friends Monroe and Rosalee asked us to. Then you send a bounty hunter to Portland. Well, maybe you didn’t send him, maybe he was tracking his targets and wound up here. But he wasn’t subtle. Now our day job is as Police Detectives, which you should know if you are keeping tabs on us. We can’t just sweep a couple of murders under the rug, especially ones so…inelegant. On a side note, while not great people I’m not sure I agree a death sentence is just. But back to my real concerns, you threatened Monroe and Rosalee for inquiring about there being a Maréchaussée in Portland. Then, you think the next best course of action is to put a bounty on <em>our</em> heads?” She laughed then, but it wasn’t amused. It was sharp and brittle and promised pain. “Oh…that was a mistake. Because now I’m angry. No, I’m <em>pissed</em>.</p><p>“As shown by the attached photo, your man is dead. And if the bounty on my head and Nick’s head isn’t removed pronto, I’m putting a bounty on <em>your </em>heads. Heck, I’ll find and dispose of you myself. Starting with…” She pulled up a piece of paper. “Oliver Haringold, Vanessa Geller, Gillam Brodeur, and Jason Swann. Jason, we already have a cousin of yours in custody for trying to kill Monroe as a masked hate monger. If you want to know what I’m capable of, ask him how his knee is doing.” De Groot’s eyes widened, and he looked up at Alexander who shrugged, honestly unsure how she knew those names. He’d never told anyone. “I’ll work my way out from there if it’s not taken care of, and I’ll let Grimms around the world know those names and search you out if I don’t feel like going through the effort myself.</p><p>“Oh, and two more demands, if you don’t want to be hunted down. 1) You do not lay a finger on Rosalee and Monroe. Y’know, I’m going to throw in Bud Wurstner too. If anything happens to them and I found out it’s because of the Wesen Council, all bets are off. You will all die screaming for mercy.” De Groot felt a shiver go up his spine at how she said it. Dramatic, but she meant every word. “2) You got a problem in Portland? Just ask us. We’ve proven time and again we are willing to <em>help</em> wesen, not just hunt indiscriminately. See my first points about all the times we helped you ungrateful bastards. This includes us bringing some to justice and ensuring there is no breach in your precious protocols—so long as the punishment fits the crime and someone innocent doesn’t end up dead. You don’t like these terms? Hit rewind and listen to what I said about how you will die. Do it anyway, just to be sure we understand each other.</p><p>“Oh, and Nick isn’t here because he’s comforting his Kehrseite girlfriend who was almost killed by Mr. Wilde. Rest assured, for that, he was already willing to hunt you down. I’m being kind enough to give you this <em>one</em> warning.</p><p>“Have a nice day.” She waved and then the video cut out.</p><p>“…Well. Perhaps that will get through to them,” De Groot said, smiling a little.</p><p>“Seems it has. The bounties were taken down a few minutes ago with notes that amount to “do not engage”.” Alexander smiled as well, taking the iPad back.</p><p>“Ah, the bravery of those who hide in the shadows when just a little light leaks in,” De Groot said blithely.</p><p>“Perhaps. I’m starting to like these Grimms, to be honest.”</p><p>De Groot couldn’t say he disagreed.</p><p>-----------------------</p><p>
  <strong>Trial by Fire</strong>
</p><p>----------------------</p><p>Fire wasn’t Sloane’s strong suit. Not meaning she was afraid of it, more that it made things more difficult. Heat, smoke, scorched earth—all pains to work through. Even if the fire was out it tried to consume everything and left little behind with ashes and soot. This was no different.</p><p>“Hey,” Wu waved as they pulled up. They were at a large store that was now a burned-out husk, still smoldering in some places but soaked in others after the fire department was wrapped up fighting the blaze late last night. The sign said through the patches of soot <em>Harrison and Sons </em>and from the other signs must’ve been a sporting goods store that had been around for decades. In the process of clearing it for investigations, they’d found bodies. Which is why they were there, to see if it fell under homicide.</p><p>“We got an ID on the bodies?” Hank asked.</p><p>“Mason Heady and Joan Tapford, employees, supposed to be closing up, according to the owner who is right over there...” He pointed to two men, an older gentleman with nice ash blonde hair still on his head and a suit, and a younger man with a similar if more youthful color of hair was also in a suit. Both were side by side and talking to the officers. “John Harrison and his son Andy. Guy with the clipboard is the insurance investigator. Arson's inside.”</p><p>The nodded and followed. A young black woman was overlooking some of the debris from the fire but looked up when they walked over. “These the detectives?”</p><p>“They are. Lt. Willis, this Detective Burkhardt, Larson and Griffin,” Wu said. “This is Lt. Willis, our lead Arson investigator on this case.</p><p>“Nice to meet you,” She said, shaking each of their hands. “Though I wish it were under better circumstances.”</p><p>“Always seems to be the case with us, not sure why,” Sloane said dryly.</p><p>Lt. Willis smiled and then sighed. “Follow me.” She led them to what once was the main office. On the ground were two bodies, a teenage boy and girl, badly burned but still recognizable. Sloane frowned a bit sadly. It was worse when the victims had barely lived their lives at all. “They must have got trapped in here. Tried to get out by breaking the window, which caused a backdraft.”</p><p>“I’ve heard that term, but what is it exactly?” Sloane asked curiously.</p><p>“It happens when a fire burns all the oxygen in the environment, and then an opening like a window or door is broke on or open. The influx of air and heating of the gases causes rapid increase in heat or, like in this case, even an explosion. It’s one of the biggest threats in fighting fires.”</p><p>“Yikes…” Hank said, looking down at the two teens sadly.</p><p>“If it’s a consolation, they didn't survive very long after that window broke, so I don’t think they suffered…” she said quietly.</p><p>“Did they start the fire?” Nick asked, pulling the boy’s wallet out. It was mostly melted and charred.</p><p>“Too early to tell.”</p><p>“Where'd it start?” Hank asked.</p><p>“Breaker box.” She motioned and they followed the storage/delivery area at the back of the building where the electric panel was open. It was pretty singed. “Could have been electrical. There's no sign of accelerants or any kind of incendiary device. But see that vent up there?” she went on, pointing up at a relatively clean looking vent. Sooty but not burned. “Fires are fairly predictable. Once it got going, it should have followed the ventilation system.”</p><p>“"Should have" implies that it didn't?” Sloane asked, arching her brow.</p><p>Lt. Willis smirked and Sloane realized she reminded her a bit of a Vulcan. Knowledgeable, reserved, bit low key but with an underlying emotional streak. “Let me show you how the fire moved.” She started back through the store and they followed, heading for the shelves, gesturing with her hands. “Fire turns right here, moves down this aisle, then comes all the way around here, then goes down this aisle, and down the stairs. Fires just don't turn for no reason,” she finished, holding her hands up in defeat.</p><p>“So, this fire had a mind of its own,” Nick surmised.</p><p>“For the most part. The office is the only place the fire makes sense. When they broke the window, the fire went right for the oxygen like it's supposed to.”</p><p>“Well, let's talk to the owner. Thank you,” Hank said, nodding to Lt. Willis with them as they headed back out of the store. The two men were still hanging around per the officers’ request and were easy to find and introduce themselves to.</p><p>“This is just unbelievable,” the father, John, said. “This property's been in my family for 60 years…”</p><p>“Nothing like this has ever happened,” his son added.</p><p>“How'd you hear about the fire?” Nick asked.</p><p>“The fire department called me about 10:30 last night,” John said.</p><p>“Where were you when you got the call?” Hank said.</p><p>“At Mulligans, the restaurant, with Andy,” he nodded to his son. “We were celebrating his promotion to manager.”</p><p>“And what time did you get to Mulligans?” Nick said.</p><p>He looked at him, his expression growing outraged. “Y-you think I had something to do with this? This business was started by my grandfather! I've worked here since I was a kid, so did my son.”</p><p>“Take it easy, dad. J-just take it easy,” Andy said.</p><p>Sloane put on a sweet, reassuring smile, mostly false but convincing. Men often calmed down when she did. “We have to look at all possible explanations and know where everyone is. It’s part of the job, sir, we mean no offence. If anything, if you can vouch for your whereabouts it helps cross you off the list and points us in a better direction.” That seemed to ease him down and Andy smiled gratefully before continuing.</p><p>“We got there about 8:00. As soon as we got the call, we came over here. We've been here all night.”</p><p>“Why were Mason and Joan inside?” Hank asked.</p><p>“I don't know,” John sighed, his face screwed up. “They should have been out by 6:30, 7:00 at the latest. Oh, those poor kids…What am I gonna tell their families?”</p><p>“We'll need your contact information, a list of all your employees, anybody who had access to the building.”</p><p>“I can do that,” Andy said.</p><p>“We're sorry for your loss,” Nick said, nodding to them before they headed off to their car to await what the fire investigators found.</p><p>“How do you explain a fire with a mind of its own?” Hank asked.</p><p>“You can't…”</p><p>“Not with a normal explanation anyway,” Sloane sighed.</p><p>Nick looked out at the father and son. “You think they were involved?”</p><p>“Well, they sure had an alibi ready…” Hank pointed out.</p><p>“Okay, let's assume dad hired someone to torch the business…”</p><p>“Someone who knew what he was doing, except he killed two innocent people.”</p><p>“Let's start with insurance. See if it was worth burning down to begin with.”</p><p>“If it wasn’t someone’s got hell to pay,” Sloane said.</p><p>They headed back to the station and split up duties: Hank called the insurance company to deal with their red tape, Nick did background checks on the Harrisons, and Sloane started searching anything on their victims on the off chance one of them was the target.</p><p>“When was the policy renewed?...What's the cash value? Uh-huh…And has Mr. Harrison filed any previous claims?...That's all we need for now. Thank you.” Hank hanged up and looked at them with a smile as the first one done. “$5 million policy. Upgraded last year.”</p><p>“$5 million?” Sloane gaped. “You can get a $5 million dollar policy on a sports store?”</p><p>“Businesses are worth more than people. …That’s a depressing sentence,” Hank muttered.</p><p>“Well, looks like the Harrisons might’ve gone through a depressing time. Take a look at this,” Nick said, calling them over. They both walked over and leaned in. “Harrison and Sons filed for chapter 7 bankruptcy three months ago.”</p><p>“I think we have a motive.”</p><p>“More so than with the vics,” Sloane agreed. “I have one underage drinking citation for Mason—he got caught with a fake ID at a bar near Lewis and Clark. But that’s all, they otherwise seem pretty clean.”</p><p>Wu walked up then, nodding to them. “So, alibi checks out. The Harrisons were at the restaurant when they said they were.”</p><p>They sighed but Nick nodded to him. “All right, check with the arson guys downstairs, see if they have any similar cases.”</p><p>“Yep. On it,” he saluted, walking off.</p><p>“Let's talk with the lawyer who filed the bankruptcy, Charles Laney,” Hank suggested. They nodded, heading out again.</p><p>Charles Laney was a large man but with a strong, commanding voice and presence. He talked as he walked but answered the questions readily. “There's no way John would burn down his own building,” he said, waving his hand as he headed for his office. “He inherited it from his father who inherited it from his father, and John's gonna give it to his son.”</p><p>“What about the bankruptcy?” Hank asked.</p><p>He sighed and sat down in a cushy leather rolling chair behind his large wood desk. “It's true there were some money issues, but bankruptcy filing is just a reorganization of debt.”</p><p>“Which means somebody he owes money to is not happy,” Nick guessed.</p><p>“I'm sure there's a few.”</p><p>“Could we get a list of those debtors?” Sloane asked.</p><p>“I can put that together for you. That all?”</p><p>“Unfortunately, no. This is a homicide investigation. There were two deaths,” Hank said.</p><p>Laney’s eyes widened and his jaw dropped. “What?”</p><p>Two employees were working late last night. They got trapped inside,” Nick said.</p><p>“Oh, my God! That's terrible!”</p><p>“We're gonna need access to the company's financial records.” Laney closed his mouth and looked hesitant at that and Nick sighed. “If you can't provide them, we'll subpoena them.”</p><p>“But that’s extra work we could be using on more important avenues of investigation, and that makes us a bit testy,” Sloane said, smiling.</p><p>“…I’ll try to get that together as well and let you know.”</p><p>They smiled and left, heading back to the precinct to see if there was any news.</p><p>“Still doesn't make any sense,” Hank sighed. “Why would you file for bankruptcy then burn down your building? Aren't you asking to be investigated?”</p><p>“Well, either he's really stupid or it was an accident,” Nick said, laughing a little.</p><p>“I don’t think option two is right…something led that fire around,” Sloane said. “But the lawyer seemed a lot more shocked that someone died than the building burned down.”</p><p>“Let's find out more about this lawyer,” Hank said.</p><p>Nick nodded and called out as they approached Wu’s desk. “Hey, Wu, could you run a background check for us?”</p><p>“Yeah. Who?” he asked, grabbing up a pen.</p><p>“Charles Laney handled the Harrison bankruptcy. See what you can find out.”</p><p>“Will do, and I have something kind of interesting,” he said, turning to them after writing the name down on a post it. “Talked to Lieutenant Bradey in arson, says the weird fire pattern sounds a lot like a case an old partner of his was following. Same M.O. He was never able to crack it. Says his partner was a little obsessed with nailing this firebug. You know, the one that always got away.”</p><p>“Great, let’s talk to this guy, he’d know more,” Sloane said.</p><p>“If he'll talk to you. Well, more specifically, you two,” he said, pointing between Nick and Hank.</p><p>“Why wouldn't he?” Nick asked in confusion.</p><p>Wu looked at him dryly. “You arrested him. For murder.”</p><p>Hank whipped his head up to look at Nick in surprise. Nick though thought for only a few seconds before groaning. “Oh shit…”</p><p>----------------</p><p>“I didn't really know what was going on back then,” Nick sighed, pacing a little bit. They were now almost an hour from Portland, in Salem, waiting in the Oregon State Correctional institution for a meeting with Peter Orson. He was a former arson investigator at their department who was also a Bauershwein. He’d arrested Orson for murder after he killed a couple of Monroe’s Blutbader friends, the brothers of his ex-girlfriend Angelina, and nearly killed Monroe. Nick was running down the case from the start for Sloane, and in a way Hank too since this was before he’d been brought into the fold so to speak. “You know, it was just all starting to happen…</p><p>“You arrested him; you didn't convict him. He did the killings,” Hank said.</p><p>“Yeah, but I didn't know Bauerschwein and Blutbader had this ancient feud…”</p><p>“Doesn't justify what he did.”</p><p>“Well, I mean, Angelina did kill his brothers…”</p><p>“Angelina?” Sloane asked.</p><p>“Yeah, Monroe's ex-girlfriend.”</p><p>“That Angelina? She killed Orson's brothers?” Hank asked in surprise.</p><p>“Is it shocking she would kill someone?” Sloane asked curiously.</p><p>“Ah…no, actually, not really. She was…intense. And vindictive. But she did die trying to save Monroe, so…”</p><p>“Ah…” Sloane said, nodding slightly. She honestly still had little clue what they were talking about.</p><p>“Orson was one of my first cases as a Grimm,” Nick sighed. “What the hell was I supposed to know?”</p><p>“Well, more than I did,” Hank pointed out.</p><p>“Even I didn’t know about the feud before I came here. We never really asked that sort of thing. You know, between the catching them and…” she motioned across her neck.</p><p>They quieted when the door towards the prison proper unlatched. A larger man in a blue jumpsuit with dirty blonde hair and circle beard came out. He looked at them with a fake bright smile that thinly masked anger in his voice. “Well, well, well, well. It's been a long time. You boys look swell.”</p><p>Nick sighed sitting down. “I wouldn't be here unless I had to.”</p><p>“That hurts,” he said snidely. He then paused and looked at Sloane in confusion. “I don’t recognize you…”</p><p>“I arrived after you were already here,” Sloane said. “Detective Sloane Larson. I’m Nick and Hank’s other partner, at the station and in our…other adventures.”</p><p>He eyed her but Nick drew his attention again. “We've got a fire we can't figure out.”</p><p>He snorted, similar to a pig. “I'm not on the payroll anymore. I'm wearing a different uniform. Maybe you didn't notice,” he bit out, pointing at the <em>INMATE</em> stamp on his coveralls.</p><p>“Yeah, this fire's different,” Hank said.</p><p>“You want me to do your job?” he asked snidely.</p><p>“You told me once, whatever else we are, we're both cops. Now this is a chance for you to be a cop again,” Nick said, taking out a folder and putting it on the table, open to a picture of their victims’ burnt bodies. Orson stilled, then frowned in sympathy, dropping the tough guy act. He pulled the folder closer, scanning it for any clues. “Mason Heady and Joan Tapford were both caught inside.”</p><p>“This fire had no accelerant,” Hank went on. “It didn't move the way fires are supposed to, almost like it had a mind of its own.” His eyes widened.</p><p>“An old partner of yours, Lieutenant Bradey, suggested you might know who we're after.” Orson looked at Nick intently, then back down at the picture. <strong>“</strong>He said you got really close to figuring out who he was.”</p><p>Orson chewed his lip a moment before speaking quietly. “You have no idea how many years I spent tracking this guy. I saw him. Once. I came so close. I would have caught him, it was only a matter of time, but then you arrested me,” he finished bitterly.</p><p>Nick leaned in, interested. “Are you telling us you can ID him?”</p><p>“I-I never did put a face to the name, but if I saw him again, yeah,” he nodded. “You have a photograph to show me?”</p><p>“No…”</p><p>He shook his head, looking at a loss. “Then I don't know how I can help you.”</p><p>Hank sighed but then tapped Nick and Sloane to turn with him. “If he saw this guy's face, Orson may be our best shot.”</p><p>“Yeah, but not from in here.”</p><p>“…Wait, are we going break him out? I’ve been lost since we got here,” Sloane said.</p><p>In the end it wasn’t breaking him out—though Sloane had been willing it seems—but calling the captain and then filling out forms to get Orson fitted with an ankle monitor. They drove him back to Portland and he followed them into the precinct. A few people who remembered him gave him looks of disbelief or distrust and he hunkered down a little. “Good to be back…” They headed into Renard’s office when he opened the door, then immediately closed it behind them. “Hey, captain. Been a long time. 3 years, 27 days, to be exact…” he added under his breath.</p><p>“Sit,” Renard ordered. Orson did so quickly, still used to taking his orders. Renard leaned against his desk with his arms folded, staring down at him. “Now, you're here for one reason only, to assist these detectives. You got two days. You make one false move, you'll be right back inside, and I guarantee no parole board will ever let you out.”</p><p>“So much for the warm welcome…” he muttered.</p><p>“Tell us what you know.”</p><p>“Well... I'm gonna need more time.”</p><p>“You don't have it.”</p><p>He huffed, trying not to get flustered. “This... this guy, he moves around a lot. I mean, he's... he's not what you'd expect. It's kind of hard to explain.” He glanced around, eyeing Sloane and Hank but also the captain.</p><p>“Is he wesen?” Nick asked.</p><p>Orson looked at him in disbelief, then around again before at him. “Wesen what?”</p><p>“You're bauerschwein,” Sloane said, making him start and look at her.</p><p>“Nick and Sloane are both Grimm,” Hank said. “Yeah, we know.”</p><p>Orson looked at Sloane with wide eyes and woged. She smiled and waved a bit, batting her eyes at him. He turned back, then looked at Renard who just nodded to him. “Wow…I've been away too long. Does everybody in the precinct...”</p><p>“No,” they said together.</p><p>“Only other one is Sergeant Wu,” Sloane said. “No one else, that we know of.”</p><p>“And we're gonna keep it that way,” Renard added.</p><p>“Where'd you see the suspect?” Nick pressed.</p><p>“Oh, at another fire. I recognized him from a previous arson. By the way, he's one of those guys that likes to light 'em and stick around and watch.”</p><p>“I know the type you mean and please tell me all he does is watch,” Sloane said, cringing.</p><p>“That’s all he does in public, I’ll put it that way. I-I chased him into the basement of the building next door. I figured I had him, and then I found his clothes, he had taken them off.”</p><p>“You just said-” Sloane started.</p><p>“Then I saw him woge,” he said, emphasizing the words.</p><p>“Into what?” Nick asked.</p><p>“I don't know. I mean, he was literally on fire! I made a lot of notes. They'd be in my old case files. I encrypted them on a drive so that I wouldn’t be seen as crazy.”</p><p>“They're open cases. They'll be downstairs,” Renard said. They rose to head down there but Nick</p><p>“You guys work the files. I think I'll do a little reading. Care to join me, Miss Larson?” he said, mock formally.</p><p>Sloane snorted and headed out when he held the door open for her. “I think I shall, thank you.”</p><p>“…Are those two kidding?”</p><p>“No. Well, yes, but not about the reading. Let's go,” Hank said, heading to go to records.</p><p>They headed to the trailer and started skimming books. Sloane knew she hadn’t come across a flaming wesen yet in trying to organize her own collection and hadn’t seen one in Nicks as she was organizing. There really weren’t enough hours in the day to do everything she needed or wanted to do. And she didn’t know this one off the top of her head. There were ones with affinities for fire like damonfeur, but literally being on fire and surviving was a completely different story. And whatever the Volcanalis was, it was more a radiant heat than anything. Like an oven compared to an open campfire—that then turned into a wildfire that destroyed everything in its path.</p><p>Sloane glanced at Nick, who was looking through files as well. It’d been a couple of days since that night with the Manticore. “So…how’s it going with Juliette?” she asked as subtly as she could. “She doing okay? You guys doing okay?”</p><p>Nick sighed, rubbing his temple. “Yeah, she…seems pretty good actually. More than I thought she would be…”</p><p>She glanced up and frowned. “You don’t sound as relieved as I thought you’d be saying that.”</p><p>“Something just feels off still…I don’t know what it is though. And I tried talking but she sort of shut down on me and said she wanted to rest. And I don’t know how to bring it up again…She’s worried about Adalind too.”</p><p>“She is?”</p><p>“She asked about her. What I planned to do if she found out I got my powers back. Told her honestly that I didn’t think the world would be sad if I got rid of a hexenbiest.”</p><p>“Can’t blame you after all she’s done,” Sloane agreed.</p><p>“I’m worried about protecting her…I can’t be everywhere,” he sighed again.</p><p>“…No, but we’re all here too, remember? We’re going to watch each other’s backs.”</p><p>He smiled a bit and nodded, remembering what they’d talked about before. “Yeah, I know. But can’t blame me for wanting to be her hero, right?” he chuckled.</p><p>“No, I don’t…” She sighed and turned a few more pages before pausing. “Oh, this could be what we're looking for.”</p><p>Nick both looked up and set his aside to make room on the desk. “What do you got?”</p><p>“Excandesco,” she said. “Latin, I think…”</p><p> “It's Latin,” Nick said, taking it and looking at the drawing that looked like a living man on fire. “I think it translates to "burns with rage," or "raging burning thing," you know, a flaming person.”</p><p>She arched her brow. “You speak Latin now?”</p><p>“Not really. But I've picked up a little bit ever since I got all this,” he gestured at the trailer. “Starting to think I should take some classes though.”</p><p>She smiled and nodded. “It does come in handy, but don’t ask me to conjugate anything,” Sloane said, looking at it over his shoulder.</p><p>“Hopefully there's an English translation…Here we go. “Rome, July 18, AD 64,” he started, already pausing in shock.</p><p>“Wow That explains why it’s put in here like this, it’s not the same as other pages in here,” Sloane said, picking gently at an edge. It had a few holes in it already. “This is parchment. Real parchment, made from leather.”</p><p> “Man…I mean, even with the translations, the date must stay the same,” Nick said. He cleared his throat to continue. “"At the request of Peter and Paul, fearful for their Christian brothers, I'd spent weeks following the excandesco, thought to be the basis for the phoenix. His patron was the emperor, Nero, himself, and Peter knew he was being sent to destroy Christians in the city. That night was a windy one as I followed him through the streets. He entered one of the small stores. I tried to catch up to him, but the madness had already begun. The flames spread rapidly through the narrow, twisting streets, rising and spreading to the palatine and Caelian slopes. With nothing to stop it, the fire raged through Rome. I blame myself for not being able to stop him, for as I closed in to kill him he emitted terrible heat. I could not continue and had to fall back, my skin and scalp badly burned. There's nothing I know that can stop these devils."”</p><p>“Damn…” Sloane said. “But these things must be rare, or they would be high on our hit list for being so dangerous. And there’d be more information on them. I’ve only heard of a phoenix as a bird, not a man.”</p><p>“You’re welcome to copy the page,” Nick said, putting a mark in it and handing it to her. She smiled and took it. When her hand hit his though she nearly dropped it. “Whoa! You okay?”</p><p>“Yeah, yeah, sorry,” she said quickly. “Just didn’t have a good grip on it.” She quickly stood. “Um, so, what should we do?”</p><p>“We need to check back with Orson, confirm this is what he saw, maybe he has some ideas.”</p><p>She nodded and they headed back to the precinct. Wu went to continue some of his own searches while they headed to the back. Orson and Hank were going through casefiles in an interrogation room and they could hear him talking.</p><p>“Every arsonist has a signature; gasoline; kerosene; diesel; schnapps. There was a guy who used schnapps... what he didn't drink, he would use to start the fire. But this guy, he has no point of ignition. He didn't leave a trace of anything!” Orson was saying, moving files around in frustration.</p><p>Nick opened the door and they both looked up at them as they entered. “Have you ever heard of an excandesco?”</p><p>“No. What is that?” Orson asked in confusion. Nick brought the picture of the sketch up on his phone and held it out to him. Orson’s eyes widened and he leaned in more to look at it. “My God... That's what it looked like when he was woged! Where'd you get that?”</p><p>“A not-so-public library,” Nick said, putting it away.</p><p>“You think he's the accelerant himself?” Hank asked.</p><p>“It makes sense,” Sloane said. “If he’s able to catch on fire without harm and walk around…it’s a fire with a mind of its own.”</p><p>“What if he's producing it, like, in his skin or glands?” Nick nodded, thinking along the same lines.</p><p>Orson had been listening and then looked like he was struck with a sudden bolt of realization. “Phosphorus.”</p><p>“Phosphorus?” Sloane asked, arching her brow.</p><p>He nodded, smiling and talking animatedly. “White phosphorus makes up 1% of the human body. It's in every cell, and it only needs 86 degrees before it ignites and burns like hell once it's exposed to oxygen, like... like a match.”</p><p>“You're talking a human match?” Hank asked.</p><p>“Yeah, basically.”</p><p>Hank shook his head, sighing but laughing a little. “Just when you think the world can't get any weirder…”</p><p>“This guy's producing more than 1%,” Nick said.</p><p>“Oh, yeah. Way more. Way, way more. When I got close to him, I almost fried,” Orson said.</p><p>“That’s going to make arresting him kind of hard when he can melt the cuffs and our faces,” Sloane pointed out. “His skin must transform to deal with the heat…”</p><p>“We can't stop him from producing phosphorus, so we need to stop him from igniting,” Nick said.</p><p>“Well, phosphorus needs oxygen to burn. We've got to block that,” Orson said.</p><p>“We're gonna need some pretty heavy-duty sunscreen to do that,” Hank said with a smirk.</p><p>“Yeah, like, 10,000 SPF?” Nick said.</p><p>“Considering I can’t choke a man on fire, that might be the best course of action actually,” Sloane said. “He must like…open his pores like vents to let the phosphorus get oxygen, so covering him in something that clogs those pores might do it.”</p><p>“I can make it. I can make it if I get the right stuff, but I'm gonna need some special ingredients,” Orson said confidently.</p><p>Hank glanced at Nick hesitantly. “Spice shop might have just what he needs…”</p><p>Nick looked like a deer in headlights a moment and his mouth flatted out in concern. “Um...I should probably call first.” He quickly headed out, taking his phone out. Orson looked at them in confusion but neither of them thought explaining who Rosalee was married to would help the situation.</p><p>Nick came back and they all headed to the car to get to the shop. “Rosalee?” Nick called as they entered.</p><p>“Hey guys,” she greeted, smiling as she brought a box over to the counter. She looked at the fourth member of their party curiously.</p><p>“Rosalee, this is Peter Orson. He used to be an arson investigator,” Hank said.</p><p>She frowned. “Used to be?”</p><p>Orson sighed and held up his hands. “All right, this doesn't really need to be awkward. I am in jail, but they got me out to help on a case.”</p><p>She arched her brow and looked at Sloane who nodded with an exasperated look. “No. Not awkward at all…What can I do for you?”</p><p>“Well, we need an ointment thick enough to handle some very intense heat,” Orson said, getting down to business.</p><p>“How much heat?”</p><p>“Blowtorch heat.</p><p>Her eyebrows rose. “Wow. Okay.”</p><p>“You ever heard of an excandesco?” Nick asked.</p><p>“No. So this is wesen related,” she guessed.</p><p>“Yeah. One with no known weakness, so we’re playing it by ear a little,” Sloane admitted.</p><p>The bell to the shop rang and they all froze when Monroe’s voice echoed through the shop. He was supposed to be out repairing a large clock somewhere. “So, they sent the wrong parts, of course. So now it's gonna be, like, two weeks...” He stopped when he was in the center, directly facing Orson. His eyes widened in recognition and his face contorted into rage. “You.”</p><p>“You,” Orson said back, equally rage-filled.</p><p>Monroe woged and roared at him, red eyes honed in on the man and lunging for him. Hank quickly put an arm over his chest, yelling for him to stop. Orson woged as well, squealing and moving to meet him in a fight if Nick wasn’t holding him back. Rosalee was shocked, standing behind the counter and watching it with wide eyes and unsure what to do.</p><p>“Monroe! Monroe, take it easy. He's with us! Back off!” Nick yelled.</p><p>Monroe’s blutbad face was shocked a moment before he changed back. “What the hell is he doing here? Why isn't he in jail where he belongs?”</p><p>Orson changed back as well, glaring. “If I belong there, so do you!”</p><p>“I didn’t kill someone in cold blood!”</p><p>“He's working with us on a case,” Sloane sighed, standing between both of them.</p><p>“What?” Monroe barked.</p><p>“We've got two dead kids burned up in a fire. Orson was an investigator who knows the guy we're after,” Nick explained.</p><p>“You mean you got him out?” he accused.</p><p>Nick sighed, wincing at the tone. “Look, he can ID the arsonist! I'm sorry I brought...”</p><p>“Dude! He killed Hap!”</p><p>“Yeah, and your girlfriend killed my brothers,” Orson spat. “If I'm in jail, why isn't she?”</p><p>“Because she's dead,” Rosalee said bluntly.</p><p>He looked at her and huffed a laugh. “Oh. Well, that's the first piece of good news I got since I went to prison.”</p><p>Monroe lunged again and only paused when Sloane held up a hand. He huffed and moved back. “Look, I don't care what kind of help you need, you are not getting it here! Not this time.” He glared at Nick who winced again.</p><p>“You Blutbader, you never give up on it, do you?” Orson said.</p><p>“No, not when it comes to bauerschwein with blood on their hands!”</p><p>“Guys...” Nick sighed.</p><p>“As if the Blutbader don't have any blood on their hands! Your kind started this!”</p><p>“That's right, and my kind can finish it!”</p><p>“Be quiet, both of you!” Sloane shouted suddenly—and it felt like a jolt went through all wesen present. Her voice was like a crack of thunder and the lightning afterwards had them frozen and quiet even if it was only for a second woged and then changed back again. She sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose, looking woozy. “Hate using that voice on anything bigger than a dog…”</p><p>Nick sighed and looked at Monroe. “We’ll leave, alright? I’m sorry.”</p><p>“Nick,” Rosalee said, coming out from the counter after the effects wore off. Monroe growled and went to the back room closing the doors hard behind him. But she made the rest of them wait before leaving. “Don't go.” She sighed and went through the doors Monroe did.</p><p>“…Why does it feel like my parents are fighting,” Hank muttered.</p><p>“Gonna have to take your word for that,” Sloane sighed, leaning against a shelf.</p><p>“You okay?” Nick asked, worried.</p><p>“Yeah. Remember how I said this trick is best used on animals when I was trying to teach you and Trubel? Using it on wesen doesn’t always work and if it does it’s like I get interference in my brain. So now I have a migraine…” He frowned and brought her over to a chair to sit down. She smiled a bit and leaned her head back to take some deep breaths. She hesitated but risked a further headache to open her hearing to see what Monroe and Rosalee were talking about.</p><p>“I cannot believe Nick brought that bauerschwein here,” Monroe raged. “And Sloane! They know better than to trust a pig!”</p><p>“He's trying to find out who killed two kids in a fire,” Rosalee said, pleading. “That's why they got him out of prison. They’re not worried about some blutbad/bauerschwein feud. He came here for help.”</p><p>“No, Rosalee, that guy stuck a shotgun in my face. In my house!” he said. Sloane arched a brow and resisted glancing at Orson.</p><p>Rosalee though sounded more fed up than scared though. “I am so sick of this... this hatred among wesen. Didn't I almost lose you to that kind of old-world stupidity?”</p><p>Monroe sounded scandalized. “Oh, my God! That was totally different!”</p><p>“It's not different. Nick is trying to do what's right, and if you can't handle it, then... maybe you should be the one to leave.”</p><p>There was a pause as the words hanged heavy in the air. “Are you serious?”</p><p>“It's not about you, Monroe. It's not about me, and it's not about Orson. It's about two dead kids, and I think we should help them,” she said, almost desperate.</p><p>“Fine. You help them!” She heard a door slam and Rosalee sigh heavily before heading back. Sloane reigned in her hearing and rubbed her temples as she opened the doors.</p><p>“Monroe left…” she stated.</p><p>“Rosalee, I'm sorry,” Nick said, looking sincerely torn up about what just happened.</p><p>“We hoped to be in and out before he got in,” Sloane added.</p><p>She shook her head sadly. “This feud goes way too far back for you to take any responsibility.”</p><p>“Well, I know, but I shouldn’t have...”</p><p>“We shouldn’t have,” Sloane corrected him.</p><p>“No. You need help. You should be able to get help, feud or no feud,” Rosalee said resolutely. Orson looked down; a bit shamefaced that she was the noble one in the room. “Let's get started.”</p><p>“Do you have anything for a headache first?” Nick said. He gestured to Sloane who was already waving her hand, trying to say it wasn’t necessary.</p><p>“Of course, that’s simple,” Rosalee said, quickly grabbing her some medicine and water.</p><p>She sighed but smiled and took it. “Thanks. I’ll be fine in just a bit, but I appreciate it.” She swallowed the pills and sipped the water before standing to follow them into the back room while Orson explained what they’d figured out about him secreting phosphorous from his skin.</p><p>Rosalee went to grab a reference book as he spoke, flipping through it. “So, what this guy does isn’t something that can be put out easily, not at these temperatures. It's like an oil fire. We can't use water. It won't stop it,” Orson sighed.</p><p>She nodded, thinking quickly as she flipped pages. “If he can produce phosphorus from his skin, you'll have to suppress it topically. Something that can be applied to his skin that won't evaporate in the heat.”</p><p>“And we have to figure out a way to get it onto him,” Nick pointed out.</p><p>“Got to be some kind of fire extinguisher,” Hank said.</p><p>“Yeah, good, and it's got to be sticky enough that he can't wipe it off, and it can't be flammable,” Orson said, looking to Rosalee.</p><p>“Like a skin conditioner that won't burn,” she said, understanding what he was asking right away.</p><p>“Yes!”</p><p>She nodded, setting the book down. “Let's start with licorice root. We boil it down, it gets very sticky when heated. It's the third shelf at the top.” Hank nodded, going to the shelves.</p><p>“What else?” Nick asked.</p><p>“Beeswax. It retains moisture when it's applied. Middle shelf, all the way to the left... no, to the right,” she corrected quickly as he walked over.</p><p>“Only thing I know for burns is Aloe of the top of my head,” Sloane sighed.</p><p>Rosalee shook her head. “No, it evaporates too quickly. It’s good for treating burns on skin but not keeping something from burning”</p><p>“Good to know,” She nodded.</p><p>“If you could get me the witch hazel though, left side all the way at the bottom.” Sloane nodded and went to the shelf. “Oh, and jojoba. Around the corner and then at the bottom,” she directed Orson.</p><p>“I got it.”</p><p>They heard the back door open but were still gathering ingredients at her order</p><p>“Okay. Good. Here's what we have to do, we've got to crush up the licorice root and then mix everything together and then heat it up till it liquefies,” Orson said.</p><p>Rosalee nodded then paused, looking behind him in surprise. They all turned to see Monroe and it was tense for a moment. Monroe looked awkward but took a deep breath. “I'll get the bowls.” He moved around them respectfully but paused and looked at Orson. “How many?”</p><p>Orson eyed him but then took a breath as well. “Two should do it.” Monroe nodded and headed to the other side of the shop.</p><p>They all breathed out in relief, glad that another fight didn’t almost break out. Nick’s phone went off—no ringtone, business—and he pulled it out to answer. “Wu. …What? Where?” He paused and looked at them in angry disbelief. “The attorney, Charles Laney, was found burned to death in his car.” Hank and Sloane looked at one another in shock, and then disappointment. Another man dead, even if it shrank the suspect pool was never a good thing. “We'll meet you there.” He hanged up and sighed. “We got to go check this out. Orson, you're coming with us. Can you...” He looked at Rosalee, apologetic but hopeful.</p><p>She smiled and nodded. “Yeah, we got the gist.”</p><p>They nodded and all headed out, nodding to Monroe on the way who gave a tightlipped smile.                  </p><p>The scene was what remained of a sedan parked down by the train yard. The inside was completely black from the fire and beyond repair. But worse was the body in the driver’s seat. Unlike the teens at the shop who could still be identified facially, the body was burnt beyond recognition. It reminded Sloane of the electrocuted victims in the Donovan house—charred flesh, missing noses, eyes melted away…</p><p>“We sure he's the one?” Hank asked, wrinkling his nose.</p><p>“Car registration matches,” Wu sighed, walking to Nick, Sloane and Orson while Hank circled the car. He held up a folder. “Got the background on him you asked for. Laney went into private practice years ago. Before that, he was a public defender. Didn't think anything of it till I got a hit on one of his clients who was a suspect in an arson fire. Name is Damien Barso, 18-year-old high school student charged with burning down his school gym. Laney got him off 'cause they were never able to prove how the fire was set. Kid disappeared right after that and has been in the wind for over a decade. This is a police file photo on him at the time.” Wu pulled a photo out and held it out to him of what should’ve been a good, clean cut kid with high cheek bones and a lanky build.</p><p>“Oh, that's him,” Orson said, taking the photo. “He's older now, obviously, but that's him. That's... that's the guy from the other fire.”</p><p>“So, Laney put Harrison in touch with Barso, who hired him to burn down his building and collect the insurance money,” Nick said.</p><p>“Only problem is, two people died,” Hank said.</p><p>“Now three,” Wu said.</p><p>Sloane nodded, then blinked as Orson moved past her walking quickly towards a fence at the top of an embankment where a small crowd had gathered. “Whoa there, stay with the group please,” she said.</p><p>“I saw him,” Orson said, scanning the crowd.</p><p>They all quickly moved to stand with him. “Really?” Hank asked unsure.</p><p>“Yeah, I'm not trying to get away,” he said defensively, looking at them and then back to the fence. “I saw him. I saw Barso up there. I swear to...” He looked again, frowning.</p><p>“Are you sure it was Barso?” Nick asked.</p><p>Orson’s eyes flicked back and forth again before he sighed. “I don't know. I'm... I don't know. Maybe I'm just seeing what I want to see because I've been inside too long…”</p><p>“Possible…but then, you did say he liked to watch the aftermath,” Sloane pointed out, glancing at the others. “He might like watching us investigating.</p><p>“Well, if Barso was here, he's gone now,” Hank said.</p><p>“He's eliminating every connection to him,” Nick realized.</p><p>Orson’s eyes widened. “Which would mean Harrison is next on the list.”</p><p>They ran for the car, jumping in and heading for the Harrison’s address. The sun set by the time they got there but they pulled up, lights flashing. They saw the son, Andy, heading for his car but he paused and looked at them in confusion. “Hey!” Hank called. “Where's your dad?”</p><p>“Why?” he asked, eyeing them all.</p><p>“Because the man he hired to burn down your building is gonna kill him,” Orson said.</p><p>Andy shook his head, looking pained. “No, you're wrong...”</p><p>“We don't have time to argue. Where is he?” Hank said, not letting him argue.</p><p>“He's at the building. I-I was just on my way to meet him. He's with one of your arson investigators.”</p><p>“Who?” Nick asked, confused.</p><p>“Yeah, we’re on this case, no one should be calling him over without us,” Sloane said.</p><p>Andy frowned. “He said his name was Lieutenant Johnson.”</p><p>Hank frowned as well, shaking his head as he ran through a list of names. “We don't have a Lieutenant Johnson in arson.”</p><p>“Willis was our main investigator and she hasn’t updated us,” Sloane said.</p><p>“It's got to be Barso,” Orson said, getting worked up. “And he's got his dad, and I'm telling you, guys, he's gonna kill him.”</p><p>Andy turned white enough they could see him in the dim streetlights much more clearly and he looked sick. “Oh, my God…Look, Barso's not after my dad. He wants me. My dad didn't hire anybody.” The detectives glanced at one another then back to him and he sighed. “Our lawyer introduced me to Barso. Nobody was supposed to get hurt.”</p><p>“You hired Barso?” Nick asked, angry and a hint disgusted.</p><p>“Yes…” He couldn’t meet their gaze.</p><p>“Well, that didn't turn out so good. He just killed your lawyer.” He looked at him in shock and fear.</p><p>Nick’s phone was going off and he pulled it out. “Get him out of here. Get him in the car,” He sighed. He answered the call and Sloane hanged around, recognizing it was Rosalee’s ringtone. Nick answered it on speaker. “Rosalee?”</p><p>“We got what you need!” she said triumphantly.</p><p>“And we think we figured out how to apply it,” Monroe said, equally triumphantly. “You want to come by and get it?”</p><p>“No, we need you to bring it,” Nick said.</p><p>“Before another man ends up dead,” Sloane added.</p><p>“Where?” Monroe asked.</p><p>“I’ll text you the address, you’re actually closer but we’ll get there as soon as we can.”</p><p>“Okay, we’ll be there!” Rosalee said. Nick hanged up and they got back into the car to head to the store.</p><p>When they pulled up, Monroe and Rosalee were waiting at the back of their car. They parked and quickly got out to meet them. “Hey. You get the stuff fixed up?” Orson asked.</p><p>“Yeah, it's ready,” Rosalee said.</p><p>“We can't use it till he woges.”</p><p>“Well, how are we gonna get it onto him?” Nick asked.</p><p>Monroe opened the back, revealing five large super-soaker style water guns laying in the trunk. “It's not very high-tech, but we think it'll work.”</p><p>“Water guns? Are you serious?” Hank asked.</p><p>“They shoot a long way,” Rosalee said, handing them out.</p><p>“Plus, he won't be expecting it. Uh, we hope,” Monroe said.</p><p>“Not a lot of options,” Nick said, taking one and looking it over.</p><p>“Haven’t had one of these since I was a kid,” Sloane said.</p><p>Andy was coming over after trying to see anything through the windows and stopped in his tracks. Nick looked at him, not seeming self-conscious about the water gun in his hands. “We need to get your dad out of there first.”</p><p>“You're gonna use toys against this guy?” Andy snapped. “He's a killer. Are you crazy? I'm gonna go get my dad.”</p><p>Nick quickly caught up to him when he tried to move past into the store and grabbed his arm. “Hey, you're not going anywhere. I'll read you your rights later.” He handcuffed him and took him back to their car, putting him in the back.</p><p>The others started towards the shop. “All right, we're gonna have to distract Barso so we can get Harrison out,” Nick said, trying to think of a plan.</p><p>Orson nodded then looked at him as they walked. “Give me your badge.”</p><p>Nick frowned in confusion. “Why?”</p><p>“Just give me your badge. He knows me. I'm gonna be the last person he expects to see in there. Give me the badge. I'll take the heat, so to speak.” Nick paused but unclipped his badge and handed it to him. “Just don't take too long…” He moved on ahead while they grouped up.</p><p>“Y’know, if he hadn’t killed your friends, Monroe, I might respect that guy…He takes this seriously,” Sloane said.</p><p>“Yeah…” Monroe agreed, frowning a bit. They went around the back and gesturing, decided that Nick, Hank and Sloane would go in through the back delivery-entrance and Monroe and Rosalee would go around and wait. They’d then try to ambush him by leading him that way.</p><p>Sloane and Nick both trained their ears the whole time, trying to keep track of Barso and Orson.</p><p>“Been a long time, Barso. Remember me? I almost caught you when you burned down the Comstock building. Burning down buildings, that's one thing. Killing people, that's just plain sloppy!” He waited, and they slowed entering the back. “You know, I used to think that you were good at what you did.”</p><p>“I'm really not concerned with what you think,” Barso finally answered. He was moving to the store area where Orson was, and they continued forward.</p><p>“You should be, because I know what you are.”</p><p>“You don't know what you're talking about.”</p><p>They heard a squealing growl and Orson must’ve woged. “I guess being an excandesco means you don't have to worry about being cold.”</p><p>He woged back just as they passed by an opening. Barso’s back was to them though so they quickly kept moving as he stepped towards Orson. “Not really.”</p><p>“All right, you just stay where you are! You're under arrest.”</p><p>“You almost caught me once, but remember what happened then? Come on over. Arrest me, bauerschwein.”</p><p>They got to the office and found Mr. Harrison duct taped to a chair. Nick and Sloane flanked the door while Hank got out his pocketknife to cut him free. They got him up out of the chair and started leading him quickly back around to the back</p><p>“What's the matter?” Barso was saying, condescendingly sweet. “I'm not gonna put up a fight.”</p><p>“If you're waiting for Andy, he's not coming.”</p><p>“What'd that idiot do, confess?” He didn’t sound like he cared. He also sounded like he was ready to burn Orson to cinders, just as they managed to get out the back.</p><p>“Orson, we got him!” Nick yelled, cutting his amplified hearing. Sloane kept hers long enough to make sure that Barso didn’t BBQ the man and was heading their way before lining up with the others to make a half ring near the door with their water guns raised. Well, the four of them did, Sloane actually jumped and climbed up to the small pitched roof over door, hanging on.</p><p>Barso came barreling out, angry, but paused when he saw them. “What the hell is this?”</p><p>“It's over, Barso,” Orson said, coming out behind them and then over to their side. “I told you, you're under arrest.”</p><p>“I don't think so.” He glared and then closed his eyes as he breathed in deeply, concentrating.</p><p>“It's happening!” Orson warned. They watched as his skin and hair turned into what looked almost like molten rock or charcoal—safe from the intense heat in some form—with cracking vents glowing as they charged with heat. His eyes too looked like molten lead glaring at them. Sloane leapt down without hardly a sound and raised her soaker to get his back.</p><p>“Now!” Rosalee yelled. They started firing the bright green mixture at him, keeping five constant streams going and coating him at all angles. No flames started coming out, the mixture clinging to his skin like a watery ooze. He looked at it in shock, trying to ignite. It wasn’t happening, but more cracks were appearing, and a glow seemed to be building up below his skin.</p><p>“What's happening? What'd you do to me? What did you do to me?!” He screamed, the glow becoming brighter and brighter and he seemed to be in pain.</p><p>“I think we better move back,” Nick said, watching him. Then he saw Sloane behind him, also watching in morbid fascination. “Sloane!” He moved around, grabbing her arm and pulling her quickly over to them before he could swipe at them.</p><p>“Aah! Aah...” he yelled, more cracks appearing.</p><p>“He's burning up from the inside,” Orson said.</p><p>“Aah!” The glow turned white hot in his sternum.</p><p>“I think he's gonna blow!” Monroe yelled.</p><p>Barso let out a scream like a man on fire should scream as the glow went through out his body, through the cracks, and he was torn apart by the force from the inside in a ball of flame. They all blocked their faces with the water guns or otherwise took cover as he was scattered to pieces around the alley. Disgustingly, the rock chunks turned back to flesh, though now it was burned through and Sloane was fairly sure that the blood evaporated.</p><p>“Is that what's supposed to happen?” Hank asked, looking horrified at the mass of burnt meat.</p><p>“Well, it's not an exact, you know, science,” Monroe said, also horrified and covering his nose from the smell.</p><p>“We gotta call this in, you all should clear out,” Sloane said to Monroe and Rosalee.</p><p>“Yeah, and thank you. As usual, couldn’t do it without you. Or you,” Nick added, nodding to Orson.</p><p>Orson was surprised but nodded back slowly.</p><p>Everyone who shouldn’t be there was cleared out. Andy and his father saw nothing from the car aside from the explosion, and they explained the super soakers he saw were filled with a special fire retardant to keep him from starting another fire. Which was mostly true.</p><p>When they were talking to Wu though, he gave them a dubious look after they finished. “So, he exploded?” he summed up.</p><p>“From the inside out. Like that burrito Darrow put in the microwave last month that near got a swat team in the break room,” Sloane confirmed.</p><p>“Spontaneously combusted might be a better term,” Nick said, though he was nodding at how similar it was to the burrito.</p><p>Wu pursed his lips. “Is it possible the victim had some sort of homemade bomb strapped to him?” he said, leading them a bit.</p><p>Hank nodded slowly back. “Yeah, sure. Anything's possible.”</p><p>“It'll look better on the report than...”</p><p>“Yeah. We like bomb,” Nick nodded. Sloane gave a thumbs up and Wu nodded and went to go start the reporting process with Hank.</p><p>“Hey, Orson!” Monroe called. Nick and Sloane both tensed, worried it was back to war. Nick wasn’t sure his voice trick was strong enough to stop them like Sloane’s—he’d been practicing on the neighbor’s dog and hadn’t made much progress beyond making him sit. Orson looked wary as well. “You know I still don't forgive you for Hap,” Monroe said.</p><p>Orson frowned but kept his voice civil if still upset. “And I will never forgive Angelina for what she did to my brothers.”</p><p>Monroe eyed him for a moment before nodding and sticking out his hand. “Deal.” Orson blinked but slowly took his hand, shaking it. He glanced back at Nick and Sloane and they smiled.</p><p>“Yeah. Monroe’s one Blutbad even I like. He’s annoyingly good,” Sloane said.</p><p>“I’m taking that as a compliment,” Monroe said, taking his hand back but smiling.</p><p>Orson nodded, not sure what to say, but then was called over by the other police. Monroe sighed and looked at Rosalee, who smiled proudly at him and put her arm around him.</p><p>It was a couple of hours later that they escorted Orson back to his cell, now in his jumpsuit again. He sighed as the door was closed behind him, looking resigned to facing the same four walls again for the foreseeable future. He turned, maybe surprised they were still there.</p><p>“Thanks for your help,” Nick said sincerely.</p><p>“It was good to get out,” he nodded.</p><p>“You did good,” Hank said.</p><p>“Thanks. Hey, tell that to my next parole hearing,” he laughed.</p><p>“We might just. I think helping us catch another killer probably looks good to the board,” Sloane said.</p><p>“…I meant what I said. I don’t forgive Angelina. And I’m not sorry she’s gone. But…working this case, I remembered why I really became and Arson investigator. I wanted to help people find answers and not have to grieve anymore. And stop guys like Barso. And I wish…I wish I’d gone about it differently. Getting revenge, I mean. An eye for an eye didn’t make me feel better, it just…”</p><p>“You needed to do something or go insane with grief,” Sloane said knowingly.</p><p>“Y-yeah…”</p><p>“I felt the same. My grandmother was killed by a group of wesen and I got my revenge on most of them. It didn’t fill the hole in me though.”</p><p>“It’s not quite the same…”</p><p>“Why? Because I’m a Grimm? I mean, I was raised to hate wesen the same way you were raised to hate Blutbader. In fact, three of the wesen that killed her were Blutbader. I got all but one…But these two,” she jerked her thumb and Nick and Hank who just smiled and waved, “and Monroe and Rosalee are my friends now. Things can change.”</p><p>Orson nodded slowly. “…Well. I guess we’ll see if I have a future someday.”</p><p>They nodded and turned to leave. “Stay out of trouble,” Nick said, waving to Orson as they left. He felt for the guy, really. He did murder two people, but in revenge for his own brothers’ murders. But Sloane had gone down that road too. And he did seem the type to think and feel remorse, and still want to do good. Maybe someday he would have a future out in the world. And if he did mess up again, they’d just have to be there to stop him.</p><p>When they got to the station it was time to clock out and Hank sighed as they headed to their cars.</p><p>“Well, glad we’ll be able to sleep tonight, knowing that that fire bug isn’t going to get anyone else,” Hank sighed.</p><p>“Was he a bug?” Sloane asked, thinking. “The book said “phoenix”, but those are usually birds and he didn’t look like a bird to me either…”</p><p>“Either way, we can now add how to defeat it to the books. Rosalee said she’d email us both the recipe to put down,” Nick said.</p><p>“Oh, sweet! I’ve still got your book, so I’ll add it in to yours after copying it down.”</p><p>“I appreciate that, thanks. I think I will stop back by the trailer though.”</p><p>“Why?” Hank asked, worried there was something else that needed to be hunted.</p><p>Nick smiled. “I’m going to put the super soaker in the weapons cabinet.”</p><p>They stared and then started all laughing together. “Oh wow, that…that is quite the addition,” Sloane laughed.</p><p>“Hey, it caused a man to explode, I think that deserves a place of honor in my armory,” he said. “Maybe I’ll name it. “Excendesco Eradicator”!”</p><p>“Needs work,” Hank laughed. “I’ll talk to y’all later.”</p><p>“Later,” they said, waving as he headed to his car.</p><p>“I’ll bring the book over when I’m done with it,” Sloane went on, hiking up to hers. “By the way…thanks for pulling me away from him.”</p><p>“Of course,” Nick said. “It was a good idea to get behind him though. I was surprise when you climbed up there like Spiderman though.”</p><p>“Gotta keep you on your toes or you’ll get bored of me,” she smiled.</p><p>“I don’t think I’ll ever get bored of you,” he said sincerely.</p><p>Sloane felt her face get red and for a moment she wondered if she was going to burn up from the inside. “Ah…um…thank you. I should get home though.”</p><p>Nick nodded, surprised a bit by her reaction. “Right, yeah. I want to drop this off and get home too.”</p><p>She nodded, climbing into her car. She waited for Nick to walk to his before groaning and hiding her head on the steering wheel. “You charming asshole, stop doing that to me…”</p><p>---------------</p><p>
  <strong>Bad Luck</strong>
</p><p>--------------</p><p>After putting up the super-soaker, Nick headed home. As he opened the door though he was immediately met with a mess—broken decorations, furniture in pieces, overturned bookcase, <em>an entire set of knives in the wall</em>—that had his heart ratcheting back up immediately. “Juliette? Juliette?!” He rushed through, looking around, and breathed out when he saw her sitting on the couch. She looked thoughtful and had another bruise on her cheek besides the one the manticore left and a bloody lip. “What happened?” he gasped, rushing over to make sure.</p><p>“Adalind paid me a visit…” she said, stating a fact with no fear in her voice.</p><p>Nick’s heart twisted and he looked around. “She did this? Did she hurt you?” He moved to touch her cheek, but she turned away.</p><p>“She tried to.”</p><p>Nick’s hands balled into fists and he felt the rage build inside him. Not only did Adalind still, <em>still</em> do this sort of back handed revenge, now she was targeting Juliette. Because of him. “I'm gonna kill her,” he growled.</p><p>“Nick,” Juliette said, voice gentle but sharp enough it got him to look at her. “I almost did.”</p><p>That had his anger easing slightly into surprise in confusion. “You almost killed Adalind? What, you shoot her?”</p><p>“I didn't need my gun,” she sighed, standing to pace. Nick watched her, unsure what she was talking about. She was troubled and hesitant, but she turned to him. “There's something I have to show you.”</p><p>“What?” he asked.</p><p>She hesitated still, worry pinching her face. “You know how much I love you…”</p><p>That made him more anxious and he sighed. “Juliette, just tell me.”</p><p>She looked at them and then, with no other warning, woged into a hexenbiest.</p><p>Nick felt his world stop for a moment in shock and horror before he drew his gun and pointed it right at her. Anger made his words sharp and bitter. “You're not Juliette. You're Adalind. What did you do with her?”</p><p>The hexenbiest backed up, and then woged back into Juliette, panicking. “Nick, it's me!”</p><p>“I don't believe you!” he shouted, gun shaking slightly.</p><p>“Listen, you... you proposed to me on this couch,” she said frantically, pointing at the couch she’d been sitting on when he came in. “You had a ring. I said no. You hid it upstairs in the dresser drawer. I found it. Adalind would never know that.”</p><p>Nick was panting, feeling his chest tighten at the memory and the realization he was pointing a gun at the woman he loved. He dropped it quickly, staring at her in desperation and confusion. “How did this happen?”</p><p>She calmed slightly, though she looked on the verge of tears as well. But also tired. “I don't know…I didn't know what was happening at first. I was really nauseous. I thought I was pregnant. I had headaches—the ones I mentioned before when Sloane was in trouble. They didn’t go away till recently and that’s…when it just happened. And it's been happening more and more. It's how I killed the guy from the Tribunal. And the Manticore. And how I almost just killed Adalind.”</p><p>“Why didn't you tell me?” he asked.</p><p>She hesitated, because she knew this would hurt him in a way. “Because I was scared.”</p><p>Nick did flinch and he quickly holstered his gun, still shaking. Slowly stepping close, he put his hands on her shoulders. “Look...We're gonna figure this out and get rid of it.”</p><p>“We can't,” she choked out, tearing up.</p><p>“Why not?” he asked, confused. There was always a cure.</p><p>“It's permanent.”</p><p>“You don't know that,” he said, shaking his head.</p><p>She stepped back. “I do. Henrietta told me.”</p><p>Nick frowned. “Who's Henrietta?”</p><p>“The Hexenbiest who's been helping me figure this out…” she admitted, looking away.</p><p>He stared, feeling this was one blow after another. “You've been seeing a Hexenbiest?”</p><p>“I had to! I didn't want to hurt you!” she sobbed.</p><p>“Well, how did you find Henrietta?” He asked, ever the detective.</p><p>She sighed, bracing herself again. “Sean Renard…”</p><p>Nick felt his ire rise—memories of Juliette and Renard being drawn to each other making bile rise in his throat. “You told him before you told me?”</p><p>“I needed help, Nick! His mom's a Hexenbiest. He's half Zauberbiest…” She looked at him, begging him to understand.</p><p>Even if he understood on some level, the pain was still rolling around inside him. “You should have told me.”</p><p>Juliette’s face screwed up at the words and she huffed and brushed past him. But she breathed deeply, sniffling. She turned to face him, crying now because she couldn’t deny the real reason she didn’t tell him. “I was afraid you were gonna kill me…”</p><p>Nick’s eyes widened. “Juliette, I would never hurt you! Never…” She didn’t look so sure, and him pointing his gun at her earlier likely made it hard to believe the <em>never</em>. Nick went over everything in his head again and beyond—all the times she was in danger. All the times she was used against him. All the times she tried so hard to help and could’ve ended up dead. And now her life was changed forever—she was wesen after being a human her whole life. Maybe even one of the worst types of wesen. “This is all because of me. This is... because I became a Grimm again,” he said, feeling close to tears himself.</p><p>She sniffed, looking down but trying to talk comfortingly despite feeling like the world was falling out under their feet. “Well, we took a chance, you know? We knew that there might be side effects. It's what we wanted.”</p><p>Nick took a shuddering breath. <em>No…not this, I never wanted this…not for you…</em> “Juliette, I am so sorry…” He moved past her, to the door.</p><p>She didn’t turn around but called to him. “Nick, where are you going?”</p><p>“I don't know…” he said, closing the door behind him. He needed out of there. All the memories were too much, all the guilt, it was like hands tearing into him and pulling him apart. He just had to not be there, to think about anything else.</p><p>---------------</p><p>Sloane was just winding down, resting on her couch, when her phone rang. Hank’s number and she accepted the call right away. “Hey, what’s up?”</p><p>“Hope you didn’t get too comfortable,” Hank sighed. “We got another case.”</p><p>Sloane groaned slightly but sighed. “Can’t get too comfortable on this job, I have learned that,” she said. “Where am I heading?”</p><p>“House off of McGregor Rd.”</p><p>“Got a house number?”</p><p>“It’s the only house there. Near the woods. Report of a teen male assaulted. Bled to death before paramedics could arrive.”</p><p>“Damn,” she sighed. “Okay, I’ll be there soon. Did you call Nick?”</p><p>“Yeah, he’s on his way too.”</p><p>“Good, see you there.” She hanged up and got her boots back on before running out with her badge and knife back on.</p><p>The house was an old farmhouse on a hill surrounded by forest. Police and ambulances were lighting up the otherwise dark area and if it weren’t for that it would seem very peaceful if a little isolated. Sloane pulled up about the same time as Nick and they both got out to walk over to Hank.</p><p>“Hope you had time to grab some dinner,” Hank joked.</p><p>“Nope,” Nick said.</p><p>Sloane reached into her pocket and pulled out two protein bars, holding them out. Hank chuckled and took one for his own pocket to eat after they looked at the scene. “Always prepared.”</p><p>“Of course.” She paused and looked at Nick who hadn’t taken the bar. “Nick?”</p><p>“I’m not hungry,” he said, starting down the hill towards the fence.</p><p>“And I thought I was disappointed we got called out again,” She said, though she was looking at him worriedly.</p><p>“Well, I'm DVR-ing the fourth quarter of the game, so if you hear a score, I don't want to know,” Hank said. Nick didn’t answer and he frowned as well. “You all right?”</p><p>“Yeah,” he nodded, though he didn’t look at either of them. Wu looked up as they walked over, nodding. “Hey, where's the body?”</p><p>“Right this way,” Wu said. “17-year-old kid, Peter Bennett, snuck out to meet his girlfriend, ended up getting his foot cut off.”</p><p>“What?” Hank asked, unsure he heard that right. They came around the trees and saw the kid lying on the ground. He was in jeans and a letterman jacket and had one foot missing near the middle of his shin. The ground beneath the limb was soaked in blood.</p><p>“Yeah. Mother heard the screams, ran out, found him unconscious, tried to save him. Kid was dead by the time paramedics finally got here. I think he bled out. No other sign of trauma. Blood's contained to the area around the body.”</p><p>“Whose shotgun?” Nick asked, shining his light on the old shotgun next to him.</p><p>“Mom's. Had it with her when she ran out to find her son.”</p><p>“Well I thought he’d accidently hit a bear trap or something, but it wouldn’t do this much damage. Also, where's his foot?” Sloane asked, looking around.</p><p>“Still looking,” Wu said humorlessly.</p><p>“The killer took the foot with him?” Nick asked, confused and horrified.</p><p>“Hell of a foot fetish,” he said, a bit more humorously.</p><p>“Who called 911?” Hank asked.</p><p>“His mom.”</p><p>“Let's talk to her,” Nick said.</p><p>They went back up the hill after making sure there was nothing else to find in the immediate area and found a woman with short blonde hair that matched their victim’s color crying at the back of the ambulance. She had a blanket around her shoulder.</p><p>“Mrs. Bennet?” Sloane asked. She looked and sniffed but nodded. “We’re Detectives Larson, Burkhardt and Griffin. Do you think you can answer a few questions for us?”</p><p>She nodded again, taking a shuddering breath. “Y-yes…I can try…”</p><p>“Alright…we were told you heard your son scream and came out with the shotgun?”</p><p>“Y-yes…There was so much blood. I couldn't stop it. I... I tried,” she sobbed, trying to not break down again even as she shook.</p><p>“Has anyone ever threatened Peter?” Nick asked.</p><p>“No,” she shook her head vehemently.</p><p>“How long have you lived here?”</p><p>“Just a few months.”</p><p>“You like your neighbors?”</p><p>“They're good people,” she nodded, face screwing up again. “They would never hurt Peter.”</p><p>“Any other family?” Hank tried. “Peter's father?”</p><p>She swallowed, looking down and sniffling. “My husband was... he was killed in a car accident about a year ago, and that's why we moved from Seattle. I wanted to give my children a new start. He told me he was going up to bed,” she choked out, covering her mouth.</p><p>“We're gonna do everything we can to find whoever did this,” Hank said gently.</p><p>She nodded but then closed her eyes as a wave of despair went through her. Nick and Sloane then watched as she woged into a wesen with long ears, a button nose and fur over her face. A slight keening sound was in her throat, one they could only really hear as well. Her eyes were closed, and she didn’t see them before she change back and tried to breathe deeply. “I'm sorry. Um...Is there anything else? My daughter's back at the house, and she just lost her brother, so I'd really like to be with her.”</p><p>Sloane nodded. “That’s what we need to start with. We’ll contact you if we need more but go on.”</p><p>“Thank you,” she said, standing and leaving the blanket on the end of the ambulance as she headed for the house.</p><p>Nick sighed a bit and looked at hank “She's Wesen…”</p><p>Hank somehow managed a look that was both surprised and not. “Know what kind?”</p><p>“Langen Ohren,” Nick said, remembering Riker Dowling a few months back.</p><p>“No, Willahara,” Sloane said. “They’re sometimes confused, but there’s some differences in the face and ears.”</p><p>“Well, either way, we need to know why they want his foot…” Nick said. He was a little testy and she arched her brow at him.</p><p>“It’s too late to talk to Monroe and Rosalee and we all need some sleep,” Hank sighed. “I think we’ve done what we can tonight, and we’ll look everything over again tomorrow.”</p><p>The others agreed and headed home.</p><p>--------------</p><p>Nick jolted awake on the couch when he heard a heavy step on the stair landing. He breathed heavily, then looked at an unamused Juliette at the end of the stairs. He’d come home and opted to sleep on the couch last night rather than go up and join her. “Hm. Not gonna kill you,” she said.</p><p>Nick sighed and rubbed over his face. “I got home late. I didn't want to wake you.”</p><p>“Yeah, I'm sure it had nothing to do with me being a...” she gestured vaguely with a sardonic expression.</p><p>Nick sighed and stood up. “I want to talk to Henrietta.”</p><p>She was a little surprised but then nodded. “I'll call her.”</p><p>He shook his head, determined. “I want to talk to her face-to-face.”</p><p>“I should go with you,” she said, uncertain.</p><p>“I think it'd be best if I went alone.”</p><p>She narrowed her eyes a little but sighed and walked over to the desk near the stairs with heir desktop to grab a pad of paper and a pen. “Okay. I'll let her know you're coming. This is the address. You should really memorize it. It can be a little bit…tricky.” She held up the page and Nick read it. <em>118 Old Mill Rd. </em>Just as he finished reading it five times in his head, the letters scattered like billiard balls broken on a pool table. He looked at Juliette, who shrugged innocently.</p><p>“It's not me, I didn't do that.”</p><p>He sighed. “Juliette, I want to make this right.” He leaned in and kissed her temple. “I love you. I'll see you later.”</p><p>Juliette watched him go and couldn’t help the twist in her heart at the fact he hadn’t looked her in the face while he said <em>I love you</em>, or really in her eyes at all. He didn’t know how to look at her anymore. What happened with Renard and the curse he could forgive—the kissing, the forgetting, all that. But being something other than human was too much. And it made her angry as well as hurt to think about it.</p><p>Nick meanwhile drove to a lovely old Victorian house painted in lemon yellow and teal details. It was nothing like the Schade’s or Renard’s modern aesthetic and seemed homey and welcoming. That threw him a little. He was further thrown when he walked up and before he could knock on the door it was opened by a young, beautiful black woman with straight black hair. Despite the bright, cheery nature of her home she was dressed all in black, with a black brocade duster, shirt and slacks. But she did smile when she saw him. “So, you're Nicholas Burkhardt. I've heard a lot about you. Come in.” She stepped back and Nick entered the home. Juliette must’ve called like she said he thought. It wasn’t that she saw him coming.</p><p>“You told Juliette what happened to her is permanent?” he said, getting down to business. He was maybe a little accusatory, but he was upset.</p><p>“And you've come to prove me wrong,” she said knowingly.</p><p>“It's not what she wants!”</p><p>“I can't help that.” She spread her hands, sounding regretful but resigned. “I thought I could at first, but not now.”</p><p>Nick stepped forward, smiling confidently. “The blood of a Grimm can destroy a Hexenbiest. I've done it before with Adalind, and I can do the same for Juliette.”</p><p>Henrietta shook her head, calm and collected. “You can't. Your blood is in Adalind, and because of what she did to Juliette, the blood of a Grimm can't save her now. And that includes any other Grimm, it nullifies the effect entirely for both, so Adalind is also safe from that effect now too.”</p><p>Nick felt panic try to set in again, but he huffed. “Then I'll find someone else to help her!”</p><p>“There's only one way to stop your Hexenbiest. Kill her.” Nicks head whipped back at her, horror plain on his face. She smiled. “Or accept her for who she is, just like she accepted you being a Grimm.” Nick winced a bit, looking down. “And while she's discovering what she's capable of, I would suggest you keep a safe distance,” she went on, raising a hand to hover over his chest.</p><p>He frowned, backing away. “What's that supposed to mean?”</p><p>Henrietta smiled coyly and walked forward slowly. Nick eyed her warily, but she was looking into his eyes. A low, dim roar was in his ears when their eyes met, and he felt like his body was warm water poured into a cup. Rippling and soft inside but held up by his outside structure. And Henrietta looked thirsty as she reached up to cup his cheek. He didn’t move back or flinch away, staring at her. “You walked in here doubting me, and now look at you…” Her fingers skimmed his jaw, then over his lips and she leaned up. Nick didn’t stop her, couldn’t stop her, as her lips gently brushed over his. His eyes slipped close, the contact sending chills down his spine. Then she pulled back and smiled up at him sadly. The roar cut off and Nick gasped, paling and blushing at the same time it felt like. He quickly backed away, putting the back of his hand to his lips. “See how easy that was? And I'm not nearly as skilled as Juliette will become. Beware, Mr. Grimm.”</p><p>Nick looked at her, unsure and embarrassed, before rushing for the door.</p><p>---------------</p><p>“So, this guy just moved to Portland. Before that, he was living in Lincoln, Nebraska,” Wu was saying, going over another case he found with Hank and Sloane. When Nick walked in though he smiled. “Somebody forget to set their alarm?”</p><p>“Not in the mood, Wu,” Nick said a little waspishly, throwing his jacket over his chair.</p><p>Wu held up his hands a little. “Sorry.”</p><p>“We got anything?” Nick asked.</p><p>“Similar case. The body was found in the woods, foot chopped off, three years ago in Lane County. Victim was a 23-year-old male. Only lead was a young boy on his bike who saw a big guy in a long coat walking through the woods with, and I quote, "A really big-ass axe."”</p><p>“Ah, the vocabulary of middle schoolers,” Sloane sighed, fake nostalgic.</p><p>“There was an all-out man hunt, but the case went cold,” Hank continued. “I'm thinking serial killer.”</p><p>“I'm thinking serial foot collector,” Wu said.</p><p>“I’m just hoping it bleeds too and doesn’t set us on fire…” Sloane sighed.</p><p>“Agreed. But why the foot? I mean, if it's a Wesen…”</p><p>Wu looked at him in surprise. “Is it?”</p><p>“Yeah, the mother is. Willahara,” Sloane said.</p><p>“And what are they?” he asked, a little anxious.</p><p>“She looked a little rabbit-like,” Nick said, Sloane nodding.</p><p>“So, Peter must be a rabbit-like Wesen too…” Hank said thoughtfully.</p><p>“Okay, wait, Peter is a rabbit-like Wesen, and somebody cut off his foot? Anybody else thinking lucky rabbit's foot?” Wu asked, looking at them all.</p><p>“…You know…I do remember someone mentioning a ritual with a rabbit’s foot. Not using it for like a keychain like now, but something else…” Sloane said.</p><p>“Do you remember what?” Nick asked.</p><p>“No, but I feel like it was gross. Then again, that’s honestly a lot of wesen rituals to me...I think one of your books might have it though, I remember seeing a Willahara portrait. One of mine does too.”</p><p>“Let's go to the trailer first,” Nick said.</p><p>They nodded and headed out quickly.</p><p>“I don't think this will ever get old,” Wu said, looking through the pages while Nick went through the rolodex. “I could spend days in here…”</p><p>“We have,” Hank said dryly.</p><p>“Found it! Book 7,” Nick said.</p><p>Sloane went down, counting the numbers she’d painting on the spines with harmless vegetable dye that wouldn’t hurt the leather until she grabbed 7. “Page?”</p><p>“Uh, fifty-eight.”</p><p>She flipped through to about that far in, turning a few pages before nodding and setting the book down. “Willahara. See, my organizational skills are pretty good.”</p><p>“Yeah, if we could just do that to the other …fifty books left.”</p><p>“Not my fault your family was so good at holding onto their books. You have any hoarders in your family?” she said.</p><p>He smiled just a little and looked back at the page. He tilted his head a bit when he saw the script and illuminated pages, including a rather tapestry like painting of a rabbit-man in important clothes. “It's written in some kind of Old English. Dates back to... 1217.”</p><p>“That's Middle Ages,” Wu said in disbelief.</p><p>“Hey, the page for the Excandesco was from the burning of Rome in 40-something AD,” Sloane said.</p><p>“You’re joking!”</p><p>“Nope. Honestly, I am impressed, Nick. You’re collection is as good as Oma’s and she had to hunt some of those books down across the world.”</p><p>“I’ll keep that in mind, but we should get to this,” He tapped the page and then turned to read through, mumbling as he scanned the page. “Willahara were considered sacred…here we go. "Due to the fecund nature of this Wesen—””</p><p>“Fecund?” Wu asked</p><p>“They can have a lot of kids,” Sloane said, and he nodded in realization.</p><p>“As I was saying… “Due to the fecund nature of this wesen, it is believed that good fortune and fertility is bestowed upon newlywed couples who participate in a practice known as Spedigberendess."</p><p>“What is that?” Wu asked, worried.</p><p>“Uh…loosely translated, it’d be something like “Lucky…fruit bearing”?” she said uncertainly.</p><p>“It says here, "Before relations are to begin, the severed Willahara foot must be placed beneath the couple wishing to procreate,”” Nick went on, cringing.</p><p>Wu stared at him for a few moments. “You're joking.” Nick turned the book to him, showing the picture of a severed hairy foot and another on the next page showing a man and woman kissing in bed with the foot detailed in the shadow under the bed, all looking like an old 12<sup>th</sup> century painting. “Okay, not joking.”</p><p>“There's more,” Hank said, noting the writing under the foot. ““The fresher the foot, the more fertile the female will be. Within three days, conception will occur…””</p><p>“They leave a severed foot under the bed for three days?” Wu asked, disgusted.</p><p>“That's what it says.”</p><p>“Uh, does anybody else think this is messed up?”</p><p>“Yep,” Sloane raised her hand, lips thinned into a disapproving line. “I mean, regardless of why, mood killer at the very least.”</p><p>“Well, here's something about the Wesen that hunt them,” Nick said, turning the page. They saw a black, foxlike wesen with a tied up Willahara, his foot on the stump like a chopping block and an axe raised in the fox’s hands. “They're called Leporem Venators.”</p><p>“There's something to be proud of,” Hank said blandly.</p><p>“If these Willahara are still being hunted by the Leporem Venators, then maybe the car accident that Peter's father died in wasn't an accident…” Nick said thoughtfully. He looked at Wu. “See what you can find out.”</p><p>“I'll hop right on it,” he said. All of them looked at him in disapproval and he sighed with pinched look on his face. “I tried to stop myself before I said it, sorry.”</p><p>“This is happening in Portland?” Hank asked in disbelief, looking down at the pages again.</p><p>“Well, if this has anything to do with Wesen fertility, I'll bet you Monroe and Rosalee know something about it,” Nick said. They nodded and rose to get out while he flipped a few pages. He paused at the page that showed a hexenbiest on it, feeling the weight he’d been trying to put at the back of his mind double on his back.</p><p>“Nick?” Sloane asked, pausing in the doorway. “You okay?”</p><p>“Yeah…yeah, I’m coming,” he said, closing the book and standing to follow.</p><p>---------------------</p><p>Renard was getting a morning coffee before heading into work, heading back to his car. As he climbed in, his passenger side opened, and he was momentarily stunned to see Adalind climb in. She was wearing a white fur coat and large sunglasses over some other expensive, designer looking clothes.</p><p>“We need to talk,” she said.</p><p>He sighed, easing back a little. “Do we?”</p><p>She looked at him and though he couldn’t see her eyes he knew she was glaring. “Victor's obsessed with finding our child. He knows you're looking too.”</p><p>Ah, so he knew about the detective Renard had hired to find Kelly. He wondered if Sam was maybe double dealing. After all, just knowing he was looking wouldn’t be worth much without knowing what he found. But he just eyed her up and down. “That's an expensive coat. Victor buy that for you?”</p><p>She growled in frustration. “Listen to me, Victor's gonna have you killed as soon as he finds her!”</p><p>“Uh-huh.”</p><p>“Our little girl's been through so much in her short life, and all without the two people who love her most. She needs us now more than ever,” Adalind went on, sugary sweet but sad.</p><p>Renard just narrowed his eyes. “Are we the two people who love her the most?”</p><p>“Don't mock me!” she snapped. “I'm taking a huge risk coming to you!”</p><p>“I’m not mocking you. Just asking if bartering her for your powers doesn’t mean anything.”</p><p>Adalind’s fist tightened and she huffed. “I was desperate. But I knew once I…felt her, I couldn’t do it. By then I was in too deep. I risked a lot to keep her, and you took her from me.”</p><p>“And I’m sorry it came to that. But you and I both know that even if you still had her, they royals would not stop coming after you or me or anyone else till they had her.”</p><p>“I could’ve protected her—”</p><p>“My mother did that as best she could and most of them wanted me dead rather than in their control. Need I remind you some of the highlights of how I grew up? Fleeing in the night, poison, assassins…I had to give up any claim to that side of my family to get them to stop actively trying to kill me. And that hasn’t stopped some.”</p><p>She quieted slightly. “If you wanted to protect her, why couldn’t you have let me go with her?”</p><p>“Because you make awful decisions. The least of which being joining Viktor.”</p><p>“I do not—”</p><p>“You’ve made enemies out of several Grimms because of what you did to Nick. Rather than let us figure out how to stop them and wait, you went to the very people we’re trying to protect Diana from. I’m supposed to trust you? Why would you want my help now?” he snapped.</p><p>She pouted but then sighed and sounded more sincere. “When Victor finds Diana, and he will find her, he's not gonna need me anymore either. It's gonna get ugly. I mean, Victor, the resistance, Nick and his <em>Hexenbiest</em>…”</p><p>Renard frowned. “You know about Juliette?”</p><p>She pulled her glasses off and Renard winced in sympathy at the black eye and cut to her cheek. “Caught me a little off guard. When did you find out?”</p><p>“She had nowhere else to turn,” he said simply.</p><p>“Well, isn't that sweet?” Adalind said snidely. “What'd you tell her?”</p><p>“Nothing much I could tell her. I don’t have the power of a full Zauberbiest, remember?”</p><p>Adalind frowned and then her eyes widened. “Oh, you sent her to Henrietta, didn't you?” Renard looked at her, not answering with words but she huffed. “Well, that explains a lot. If this happened to Juliette, that means someone helped Nick become a Grimm again.” Again, he didn’t answer with words, but Adalind knew how to read him. “So, it's true.”</p><p>“Why don't you ask him?” Renard challenged.</p><p>“I don't think so,” she laughed. She sobered and looked at him more pleadingly. She took his hand, squeezing it. “Sean, you and I need to be on the same side. It's us against them, and I'll do whatever it takes to save our daughter. I want you with me.”</p><p>He eyed her and then huffed out a laugh at the attempt at wiggling into his mind. It almost worked. “Damn, you're good…But even if I’m not a full Zauberbiest, I’m not falling for that.”</p><p>She glared again, taking her hand back. “I’m not giving up. I haven’t seen her for months, Sean. You can’t understand…”</p><p>He looked at her then sighed again as he pulled out his wallet. “I don’t know where Kelly Burkhardt is. She’s too good at evading people searching for her. But I did manage to get this speaking to someone who gives me updates.”</p><p>“What? Who?” She asked, latching on to anything he said.</p><p>“I can’t tell you. If I do, Kelly will really be gone in the wind for good. This person is the only one she contacts about Diana—it’s not Nick before you think. You haven’t met this person.” Adalind glared then looked at what he was offering her from his wallet. She stared and shakily took the photo showing a baby with violet eyes. “It’s a little edited so I don’t have to explain floating toys, but…that’s Diana. She’s doing well. I’m working to gain this person’s trust enough to get more updates and photos, but if I mess this up we’re both going to be screwed. And so will Diana if we’re not careful.”</p><p>Adalind was listening but wouldn’t take her eyes off the photo. She had tears at the corners just looking at it. Sean took a breath and pushed the photo more towards her. “Take it. I can make another. The file was sent to me edited and encrypted, no way to trace it.”</p><p>She looked at him then slowly took the photo. “…Thank you…” she said honestly, holding it to her chest.</p><p>“…Adalind. What I wanted to tell you before you went to Viktor and…what you did to Nick is that if we can stop the royals, we can get her back. Kelly said so herself, she didn’t want to keep Diana from you forever.” Adalind looked up hopefully but he frowned. “What you did after though…I don’t know if I can convince them to trust you. You constantly hurt everyone around you…use them…”</p><p>“Oh, like you don’t?” she snarled.</p><p>“…I do. And I’m sorry for what I did to you when your powers were gone.” She looked at him in shock and confusion at the sincerity. “And I’m sorry for taking Diana. I did what I thought would protect her because I do really love her, Adalind. I felt it when I held her, and you know I thought that might never happen. My regret is hurting you to do it but…”</p><p>“…I really do want to believe you,” she said.</p><p>“Nearly dying puts a lot in perspective,” he said, smiling sadly. “And I want to believe you that you want us all make it out of this together.”</p><p>“…For once, you should.” She put her glasses on and opened the door, quickly walking away. Renard watched her go and sighed again, pinching the bridge of his nose.</p><p>-------------------------</p><p>“Willahara?” Monroe asked. “Yeah, I've heard of them. Never seen one, though. My grandfather swears he found one hiding in the Bavarian forest.”</p><p>“He didn't cut off...” Hank started.</p><p>“Oh, no, no. He already had kids. He did eat him, though. But that's…beside the point,” he finished awkwardly at Nick, Hank and Sloane’s looks, going to finish getting ingredients for what Rosalee was currently grinding with a mortar and pestle.</p><p>“From what I've heard, Willahara don't stay in one place too long,” Rosalee said.</p><p>“It's the same reason they don't want to woge in front of other Wesen, you know? Fear of being exposed,” Monroe explained.</p><p>Rosalee nodded but looked upset. “The thought that they're still being hunted, don't get me started.”</p><p>“If the killer is selling their feet...” Hank started.</p><p>“That is, I am sorry, outrageous!” Rosalee snapped. “God, you're getting me started!”</p><p>Hank blinked in surprise but held up his hand placatingly. “Sorry, but... who are they selling to?”</p><p>“Couples trying to get pregnant. I mean, why else would you want a Willahara foot under your bed? It's not exactly romantic,” Monroe said, looking at Rosalee for confirmation.</p><p>“That’s what I said,” Sloane said. “But I mean, also…who is that desperate for kids?”</p><p>“It’s important to some people,” Rosalee said.</p><p>“Yeah, human and wesen. I knew a couple who divorced over it, and another who nearly went bankrupt trying to have them,” Hank agreed. “And you hear a lot of horror stories about people kidnapping babies, sometimes out of the womb…”</p><p>“Yeah, people can get crazy with baby fever,” Monroe nodded.</p><p>“Then adopt!” Sloane said. “I don’t even want kids, and this seems obvious! Take the kids that don’t have a family!”</p><p>“I guess for some it’s more important they’re blood related,” Rosalee sighed. She agreed though.</p><p>“Okay, back to this: How does the Leporem Venator find these couples? There's got to be a middleman,” Nick said.</p><p>“Fertility clinics,” Rosalee said after a moment’s thought.</p><p>“Wesen fertility clinics? There is such a thing?” Sloane asked dubiously.</p><p>“There's Wesen fertility doctors in every big city, although what we're talking about is illegal,” Monroe said. “They're not gonna be, like, advertising, “Come on in for the Spedigberendess severed foot option."”</p><p>“Well, glad to know the council did something right,” she sighed. “How do we find one though? Or talk to them about it?”</p><p>“Well, you can’t…but a Wesen couple could speak with these doctors without raising any suspicion,” Rosalee said.</p><p>Nick smiled. “Are you guys volunteering?”</p><p>Monroe was about to say something but Rosalee was quicker. “Hell, yes! If we can help put a stop to this savagery, we're in.”</p><p>“See, that's what happens when you get her started,” Monroe smiled.</p><p>Nick’s phone had rung meanwhile, and he answered it. “Wu, what did you find out?...I'm putting you on speaker.” He hit the button and Wu’s voice echoed into the shop.</p><p>“Peter's father was killed in a hit-and-run accident, driver never apprehended, left foot severed off, not found at the scene,” he said.</p><p>“Left foot? Does that matter?”</p><p>“It's supposed to be the lucky one,” he said as if it was obvious. “I just went out there to follow up on the accident report with the Bennets. They're gone. Nothing left in the house.”</p><p>“They're running scared,” Nick said.</p><p>Hank nodded, looking worried. “We need to find them.”</p><p>“We're coming in,” Nick said, hanging up and already moving for the door.</p><p>“We'll speak with the Wesen fertility doctors,” Rosalee called after them.</p><p>------------</p><p>Back at the station, Hank called the funeral coroner regarding Peter Bennet, figuring if they left they must’ve made arrangements for his body. The arrangements were that after paying in cash, Peter was to be cremated. Likely she wasn’t going to come get him.</p><p>Monroe called then with a list of fertility doctors in the city. Rosalee vetoed one because she worked closely with them, creating morning sickness medicine for their customers, and felt the nice old man in charge wouldn’t be involved. Another, the head doctor had retired a month ago. That left only a Dr. Redfield, and they managed to get an appointment with him that day. Though Nick wanted to come too, but they convinced him it would be better not to bring a Grimm in, and he reluctantly agreed.</p><p>It ended up being the right choice because an hour later they got a call that Chloe Bennet, Peter’s little sister, had been kidnapped. They rushed down to the motel they had been staying at and their mother, Beatrice, frantically rushed over to them when they pulled up.</p><p>“You have to find her! Please, please! She... sh-sh-she's all I have left,” she sobbed, grabbing on to Nick as she begged him.</p><p>He glanced around and they crowded in to try and keep this as quiet as they could. “We know what's going on. We know you're a Willahara,” Nick said.</p><p>Her eyes widened and she stepped back. “No, no, no…I don't know what you're talking about.”</p><p>“Mrs. Bennet, this isn’t the time! He and I are Grimms, so let’s drop the act so we can help you,” Sloane said.</p><p>“We need to find the Leporem Venator who's hunting you,” Nick agreed.</p><p>She woged then, all long ears and wide eyes, but the face still a little more human than the Langen Ohren’s even with her twitching nose. Just as quickly she changed back, staring at them in shock. “Oh, my God…You do know.”</p><p>“Yes, but we’re not interested in hurting <em>you.</em> We want the guy who’s been hunting your family, so we can hurt him.” Nick glanced at her, but she stood by what she said. “What’s his name?”</p><p>“I don't know who he is,” she whimpered. “I don't know anything about him, except he's hunting us down.”</p><p>“Have you ever seen him?” Nick asked.</p><p>“No.”</p><p>“How do you know it's the same man that killed your husband?” Hank said.</p><p>“He's the Leporem Venator. All Willahara know,” she said bitterly.</p><p>“How did he find you?”</p><p>“My job, the kids' school, who knows...We stayed here too long,” she sobbed.</p><p>Sloane frowned, remembering moving often with Dierdre growing up. For them it was because they were hunters. For the Bennets, because they were the hunted. Nick was thinking similarly about growing up with Marie, even if he didn’t know that was the reason. It was a sad spectrum to be at opposite ends of.</p><p>“You'll stay under police protection until we find this guy,” Nick said. His phone rang and he pulled it out quickly, walking a little way away.</p><p>“But how are you gonna do that? You... you can't find him,” she sobbed.</p><p>“We’ve done harder things than find a crazed killer,” Sloane said.</p><p>“What about Chloe?”</p><p>“We’re going to do everything possible to get her back in one piece,” Hank said, then winced at his phrasing. “I mean…”</p><p>“We’ve done rescue missions before too,” Sloane said.</p><p>“…What kind of Grimms are you?”</p><p>“I…don’t know if we have a name,” she said honestly.</p><p>“Don't let the nurse leave. The victim's sister was just taken. We're on our way to you,” Nick was saying louder, rushing back over. “Monroe and Rosalee found the person setting up the deals, a nurse at the Redfield clinic. We need to get over there and question her.”</p><p>“I-I want to come,” Beatrice said.</p><p>“No, you stay here,” Sloane said. “You’re safer with a bunch of cops. Let us handle this.”</p><p>She frowned but Sloane motioned for an officer to escort her away while they piled into the car to drive off.</p><p>At the clinic, Monroe and Rosalee were waiting and waved a bit as they entered. “Hey. So, the... don't let her leave thing...It got a little tricky.”</p><p>They arched their brows and noted the ice pack on Rosalee’s hand. “…Well, good job all the same,” Sloane said, smiling a little.</p><p>“We’ll take it from here,” Nick said. They walked over, looming over the nurse in the chair who squirmed under their gaze. “Who's your contact?” She didn’t answer and he glared and leaned in. “Give us a name. We need to find him.”</p><p>“I don't know his name,” she said, nervous. “I swear I've only met him once.”</p><p>“But that was enough to set this all up?” Sloane asked.</p><p>“We contact each other by phone!”</p><p>“Where does he meet the couples?” Hank asked.</p><p>“I don't know. I-I-I have nothing to do with that. He calls me when he's in town.”</p><p>“And you find the buyers,” Sloane said in disgust.</p><p>“I'm helping couples that have given up hope!” she said.</p><p>“Is that how you justify it? It's accessory to murder,” Nick said.</p><p>“I'm not involved in murder…” she said quietly.</p><p>“Where the hell did you think the feet were coming from then? A farm?” Sloane bit out, looking tempted to grab her. She shrank back more.</p><p>“Found the nurse's phone!” Wu called, breaking her out of the angry stare. They looked hopeful but he sighed. “Her contact is using a burner.”</p><p>“He's gonna text us tonight with the where and when if that...” Monroe started.</p><p>Nick shook his head. “Chloe will be dead by then…” He then paused and looked at the nurse. “Wait a minute, who's the last couple you set him up with?”</p><p>“The Spinellis. They're patients here. Dr. Redfield couldn't help them…” she said quietly.</p><p>“Give us an address.”</p><p>They were out the door before the ink dried and over to a relatively normal looking house—which it always was it seemed. Nick pounded on the door.</p><p>“Just a second, I'm coming,” a man called. The moment the door was unlocked, and unlatched Nick kicked it in.</p><p>“Police!” Hank yelled, letting the others circle around.</p><p>Nick grabbed the man, pushing him against the wall. “Where's the Willahara foot?”</p><p>“I have no idea what you're talking about!” he yelled, terrified.</p><p>“Don't lie to me!”</p><p>“Where’s your bedroom?” Sloane asked, figuring that must be where it is.</p><p>Mr. Spinelli woged into a maushertz and screamed. “Oh, my God!”</p><p>“We’re not here as cops,” Nick said, lifting him a little higher.</p><p>“What's going on here?” a woman asked, coming in from the back of the house. She gaped at what she saw.</p><p>“Sally, they’re Grimms!” he yelled.</p><p>She gasped and, instead of running for the back door, ran up the stairs instead. Sloane was hot on her heels and Nick dropped the man to follow. Sloane rammed the door with her shoulder before the woman could close it, sending her tumbling back at the force. It was the master bedroom and she and Nick both went to the bed to look.</p><p>“Wait, please, don't!” Sally begged.</p><p>They didn’t see a foot under the bed and looked at one another in confusion.</p><p>“Did you find it?” Hank asked as he came up, following the husband.</p><p>“No…”</p><p>“Hold up,” Sloane said, grabbing the mattress. Nick caught on and grabbed it as well, lifting. Sure enough, there between the box spring and the mattress was a hairy foot. Nick growled and grabbed it before going over and holding it up to the couple who were shrinking back in fear.</p><p>“Where'd you meet the guy who sold you that?”</p><p>“A cabin in the woods off Highway 22, a mile north of Post Road,” the man said quickly.</p><p>Nick nodded and then hit him in the chest with the foot. “I can't arrest you for this, but good luck when the Wesen Council finds out about it.” He turned to leave.</p><p>“No, please don't say anything!” the wife said, in tears. “All we wanted was a baby! Please!”</p><p>Sloane glared and took the foot back. “A mother lost her son so you could get this. 17 years old and dead because of <em>you</em> and a stupid ritual from the middle ages. You think that makes you fit to be parents?”</p><p>They cowered and looked down, unable to answer. Sloane headed out behind Nick after grabbing a shirt off a chair to wrap the foot in. “We’re taking that?” Hank asked as he followed her down. Nick looked up in confusion as well.</p><p>“The nurse will testify all the couples she knows that bought or wanted to buy one of these or I will make her. But I’m not leaving it here with them,” she said. They smiled and nodded before rushing out to the car.</p><p>Getting to the cabin as fast as they could, they parked a way back and tried to get to the door as quietly as possible. It wasn’t easy in the dense layer of leaves—at least not for Hank toting a shotgun, Sloane and Nick were doing well. But when they got to the door and busted it in, it was empty with the back door wide open.</p><p>“Dammit,” Nick sighed.</p><p>“Guys,” Hank said, pointing down to a single shoe and sock near what looked like a chopping block with a leather strap on it. A left shoe and sock.</p><p>“No blood, she might still be alive,” Sloane said, rushing for the door. Nick and Hank followed. It led right out into the woods and they moved through the more open areas where a man carrying a teenage girl would have an easier time going through.</p><p>Part way through they had to pause. “…Do you guys hear…accordion music?” Sloane asked, looking around in confusion. It was a jaunty little tune echoing around them, played on a concertina accordion.</p><p>“Oh, thank God you hear it too,” Hank sighed.</p><p>“Yeah, but it’s making it hard to hear anything else…”</p><p>“It’s coming from this way,” Nick said, leading them over to another area.</p><p>The music stopped and they frowned, moving into a small clear area. The according was on the ground—a distraction they unfortunately fell for. The Leporem Venator—black furred and foxlike— swung down with an axe towards Hank, who just barely brought his shotgun up in a cross guard in time. He tried to hit him with the butt of the gun under the chin as he broke the guard, but he fox wasn’t stunned. He prodded him hard with the axe, making Hank back up.</p><p>Nick and Sloane tried to rush in, but he booted Nick in the stomach and sent him sprawling back while he swung at Sloane close enough she felt the wind on her face. Hank tried to line up a shot, but he used the axe to push it away as it fired. A few more blows from the blunt edges and Hank was on the ground groaning. He turned to try and put the axe into Nick, but Sloane rushed up and grabbed it with both hands. He couldn’t bring it down far with her holding it and Nick was able to roll and get up. She then pitched her body back, using her foot to send the fox flying and landing hard on the ground. He was already trying to get up though when Nick rushed up and kneed him right in the head. Another couple of punches followed but he still had the axe and Nick had to dodge one furious swing. He hit Nick with a push of the axe head top into his stomach, making him back away as the wind was knocked out of him. Sloane then rushed up kicked him hard in the side. He snarled and grabbed her foot, raising the axe, but she twisted and brought her other foot up into his arm, making him howl when she hit. She had to drop to the ground when he let go and Nick struck him again. Another hit had Nick on the ground now though and the fox advanced with the blade raised. He was just barely able to roll and let the axe hit the log instead. It was firmly embedded and would take too long to get free, so he cut his losses and ran into the woods.</p><p>Hank was up and aiming again but Nick quickly got up. “Hank, no! No, he’s got Chloe!” Nick reminded him.</p><p>Hank growled but lowered the weapon and they rushed after the man. Sloane pause only to grab the axe and then raced ahead, surprising the boys. She was rushing through the woods like an animal herself on his trail. But she skidded to a halt when something suddenly hit him from a bush. A metal post of some sort, in the hands of Chloe Bennet. She brought the rod down again on the fox’s back. “That’s for my brother!” she yelled. The man turned, unwoging and looking at her in shocked confusion. He likely hadn’t expected her to fight him like this. “And this is for my father!” She brought the rod down and through his foot, making him scream.</p><p>He back handed her, and she fell to the ground. Pulling the rod from his foot, he glared down at her. “Well, this is for—”</p><p>Sloane didn’t give him a chance to finish. She rushed in, jumping over Chloe and yelling as she brought the axe down. He was just barely able to try and block with the post, but she ended up going through some of his fingers. He screamed, letting go and backing away. “You stupid bitch! Look what you did to me!”</p><p>“I’m planning on worse,” Sloane said, choking up on the axe. He woged, reading to try and tear her throat out, but a shotgun blast through the chest made him yelp and fall back. Sloane turned, sighing when she saw Hank and Nick. “I had him…”</p><p>“I know. Just figured it was better to put him down quick. He almost kicked our asses,” Hank said.</p><p>“Not sure he deserved quick,” Sloane said. She tossed the ax down into his corpse and turned to look at Chloe. “Hi…you okay?”</p><p>“Y…yeah…” she said.</p><p>Nick went over to help her up, looking her over. “Hey…why don’t we get you back to your mom?”</p><p>She gave a shuddering breath and nodded, and they all started back through the woods. On the way Sloane picked up the little accordion and decided to bring it back for a souvenir.</p><p>----------------</p><p>“Thank you so much, again,” Beatrice said, hugging her daughter close.</p><p>“You’re welcome,” Nick said, smiling a little. “Take some time to rest and plan.”</p><p> “You can wait around for Peter’s remains too,” Sloane said.</p><p>She sniffed but nodded. “Yes…yes, I want to do something good with them.”</p><p>“I…got this,” Sloane said, holding up a bag. “I didn’t get a chance to take it to where he is, but…it’s to make him whole.”</p><p>Beatrice and Chloe’s eyes were stricken a moment, but she shakily took it. “Thank you…really, I appreciate it.”</p><p>“What are you going to do now?” Hank asked.</p><p>“I…don’t know. We’ve been running for so long…There might be other Leporem Venator out there…but at least this one is finally gone. But I think we need to go somewhere…”</p><p>“…I got one more thing for you then,” Sloane said, pulling out her wallet. “I know a town, in California. It’s a nice place, not too old or too modern. Nice people. I know one of the new deputies and she’ll understand keeping you safe. Also, a couple there.”</p><p>“A couple?” Chloe asked. That probably didn’t have a great ring to it.</p><p>Sloane smiled, writing down a number on her card. “They’re lesbians and like, old enough to be my moms. You don’t really need to worry about them wanting kids that way. But they’re wesen. So’s the deputy. And they’re all good people and friends of mine, so I can assure you they’ll watch your backs.” She handed Beatrice the card. “They can help you find a place, get settled, get work…Up to you how long but it’ll be a safe option.”</p><p>She took the card, looking at it and then at them. “You’ve all…done so much for us, I can’t believe you keep doing more.”</p><p>“We’re just trying to do our best,” Hank said with a smile.</p><p>“But I mean…even you two…” she looked between Sloane and Nick.</p><p>“We’re unconventional, I know,” Nick said.</p><p>“Makes it interesting,” Sloane chuckled.</p><p>“Well…thank you again. We’ll kind of figure out what works best, but having options is a relief.”</p><p>They nodded and left them int heir hotel room.</p><p>----------------</p><p>“Juliette?” Nick called as he entered his house. She came out from the dining room, standing in the archway and he paused. She didn’t look excited to see him, but he couldn’t say he was excited to see her either. “I talked to Henrietta…I'm not giving up. We're gonna get through this.”</p><p>Juliette sighed, shaking her head. “You can't change it…”</p><p>“I'm not gonna let it destroy what we have,” Nick said, determined.</p><p>She frowned and walked forward, staring him down. “I see the way you're looking at me…and when you’re not looking at me.”</p><p>“Juliette...” he started.</p><p>“It's not the same. It'll never be the same,” she said, disappointed and sad.</p><p>“You learned to understand me, now I have to learn how to understand you,” he said, remembering what Henrietta said. “We have to…to do our best with what we have or make it better.”</p><p>“Make it better? How?”</p><p>“I…don’t know but staying together is what I want.”</p><p>“Is that forever?” she asked sardonically.</p><p>“I'm not going anywhere.”</p><p>She stared at him then woged. Nick quickly turned his face away. It was hard to look at the gray, decaying skin hanging off her bones and the red, coal-like eyes. She snarled a little, then said in her normal voice that didn’t sound any different. “Is this what you want to spend the rest of your life with? Is it?”</p><p>“Why are you doing this?” Nick asked, almost desperate for her to stop.</p><p>“If I'm the girl of your dreams, the least you could do is kiss me,” she said sweetly. She reached up to lay her hand on his cheek and he shuddered at the feeling of the parchment dry skin touching him. This wasn’t like Henrietta, there was no spell to try and make him want her. This was her making him face the fact she was <em>this</em>. That he had to take this form if he wanted Juliette at all. “Kiss me,” she said again. It was a test. And he was failing, he knew, but his skin was crawling. “You can't even look at me,” she said, her voice turning bitter. He tried but looking into those red eyes made every fiber of his being screamed to get away, to fight, to <em>kill. </em>He hated it but that was the feelings he had, no matter how painful they were for him to admit. She took her hand back and then changed to her human form. “This is what's forever.”</p><p>She moved past him and then out the door, closing it behind her. Nick didn’t turn but he had to lean against the wall as he felt the fear, anger, sadness, disgust, all of it <em>drench</em> him and try to drag him down.</p><p>
  <em>What am I going to do?</em>
</p><p>---------------</p><p>Henrietta came downstairs tying the sash to her black velvet robe when she heard the knock that didn’t go away. Opening the door, she was only mildly surprised to see a familiar, if bruised, face. “Adalind,” she greeted, smiling politely.</p><p>“I hope you don't mind me just showing up,” Adalind said, walking inside.</p><p>Henrietta closed the door but kept smiling. “I heard you were back in town.”</p><p>“I bet you did,” Adalind said dryly. “So... I understand a mutual friend came by to see you.”</p><p>She smiled and nodded. “Juliette. Lovely girl.”</p><p>“Not so much anymore…”</p><p>“Depends on who you ask I’m sure,” she said.</p><p>“Look, can you cut the Glinda the good Witch act,” Adalind said testily. “I know Sean Renard sent Juliette to you, and I want to know how she got so good so fast. What did you teach her?”</p><p>“I haven’t taught her anything,” she said simply, spreading her hands in a placating gesture.</p><p>“Bullshit!” Adalind spat. “She kicked my ass the other night! Me! Who’s been training since I was in diapers practically! And she nearly wipes the floor with me.”</p><p>Henrietta just looks amused and it infuriated Adalind more. “I’m afraid whatever Juliette can do at the moment is self-taught. The only pointers I gave were on controlling her woge. Perhaps she’s a natural.”</p><p>Adalind glared but Henrietta wasn’t the type to lie about this. “And you’re fine with that?”</p><p>“I admit, I’m worried,” she said slowly, sobering a little. “After all, Hexenbiests often go mad with power, don’t they?”</p><p>“I didn’t go mad with power,” Adalind hissed. “I went a little mad trying to get it back, but I had a right to be! It’s mine, it’s a part of me! Her’s should just be a pale imitation of the real thing, not stronger!”</p><p>“I have about as much control over that as you do,” she said patiently. “My advice would be: Don’t challenge her again until you have a plan. That includes what to do if the Grimm should find out. Because if you haven’t already guessed, he got his powers back and that’s how she ended up as she is.”</p><p>Adalind huffed, crossing her arms. She was right, she knew. Nick was a Grimm again and he would be ready and willing to take her head probably, especially if she did anything more to Juliette. But it was unfair! After all the work she went through to get her powers back, to do all that complicated spell work, Juliette’s powers were just <em>naturally</em> stronger?! This complicated trying to get Nick to tell her where his mother was—</p><p>“…There’s something else.”</p><p>“Oh?” the other witch asked curiously.</p><p>Adalind reached into her pocket and pulled out the picture of Diana. “Gathering information was always a specialty of yours. That includes scrying. Can you find this child?”</p><p>Henrietta took it, looking at the picture and smiling. “Oh, she’s beautiful. Takes after her mother,” she said, looking at Adalind coyly.</p><p>“You already know…” Adalind sighed.</p><p>“Sean asked if I could try to find her as well after he got this picture. Nice of him to give you a copy, seems he does still care.”</p><p>“That’s not what’s important right now, can you do it?” Adalind asked impatiently.</p><p>Henrietta eyed her, gaze moving up and down, before handing the picture back. “Can I? Maybe. Will I? No.”</p><p>“Excuse me?” Adalind growled.</p><p>“You called me “Glinda the Good Witch” earlier. I admit, I go against some of my instincts helping people. But I prefer it to hurting them. Your daughter has a lot of power I’m told. And after your past actions, I’m not sure I want you to be the one to guide her.”</p><p>Adalind felt her rage boil over. “I didn’t come here to be judged by you!” she screamed. She tried to woge and then gasped, staggering a little at the flash of pain over her entire body.</p><p>“I lit an incense burner full of derivative of Rue when you came in. Witches Bane. I don’t actually want to cause you pain so please don’t try to woge through it just to throw a tantrum.”</p><p>She glared at her. “You just have that lying around?”</p><p>“Admittedly it was a precaution I meant for Juliette if she came back having control issues, but if it keeps this a bit more civil I decided to use it. This is what I mean though, Adalind. You’re losing control.”</p><p>“I am in control!”</p><p>“Are you? Or are you in the royal’s pocket? Again?” Adalind glared more and Henrietta sighed. “I’ve kept my ear to the ground ever since your mother’s death. Catharine and I didn’t get along, but I don’t get along with many of my kind. And honestly while her behavior was often alarming over the years, yours is worse. At least for a grown woman.”</p><p>“Insulting my mother? Really?”</p><p>“I’m not insulting her. Once, she and I were friends. We were a small coven of our own in a small town, with Renard’s mother. We were learning a lot on our own, trying to be so grown up when we were teenagers…For Elizabeth and me it was mostly just fun to test our limits. But Catharine had ambition. She wanted power, by any means necessary, beyond her limits. Her methods became dangerous…sadistic. She started doing magic much darker than what was allowed.”</p><p>“Please,” Adalind huffed. “My mother wasn’t a saint, but she wasn’t evil.”</p><p>“Evil comes in many forms and degrees. We were all apprenticed to a powerful Hexenbiest when we were thirteen, Sybil Enfield.”</p><p>“Apprenticed? I was never apprenticed, my mother taught me…”</p><p>“Well, it’s up to the family and the witch often. But likely she worried you’d hear about this…Catharine disliked Sybil. She was very hard on her, constantly making remarks that she wasn’t good enough. She was like that with us, but Catharine was her favorite target. Catharine took it as a challenge. And before we graduated high school, she put a plan into motion to get back at her. And she roped Elizabeth and I into it. We thought it was just a prank. She said it would teach Sybil not to underestimate us. One of the most difficult spells—a spell to turn her into a goat. We thought it was a hilarious idea, and she said with the three of us together it’d be easy. Except it didn’t work correctly. We lured Sybil into the spell circle, chanted the spell and…whatever she became wasn’t a goat or a human or a hexenbiest.” Henrietta’s calm smile was gone, looking nauseous at the memory. “It was like she was just a pile of flesh and bone…screaming in pain as her body was trying to put itself back together.”</p><p>Adalind swallowed a bit but shook her head. “It was an accident…”</p><p>“No. Admittedly Catharine didn’t mean to take it that far, but Elizabeth saw where she’d changed the circle. She didn’t know what it would do but she intentionally sabotaged the spell, thinking it would get back at her and cause her pain. That if she thought we were screw ups we’d prove her right and make her sorry for not teaching us better. And she made us complicit in the scheme without our knowledge.”</p><p>“You’re lying…”</p><p>She sighed and walked over to painting—a still life of a pomegranate cut open in front of another bowl of fruit and in the back a shadowy figure holding the other half in his hand. She reached through it like it was water and pulled out a box the size of her hand. “We tried to reverse it but couldn’t. In the end, Sybil died. I think her lungs couldn’t even work anymore. And we buried what was left of her in the woods. We had to take her out in a wheelbarrow... Catharine swore us to secrecy—and by that I mean she forced us into a blood pack. We’d meet the same fate if anyone told. The pack ended when she died, but…I still kept this.” She opened the box and pulled out a lock of silvery hair—except it oozed like slime in her fingers. Adalind backed up, staring at it in shock. “She placed the pack onto bits of Sybil’s hair…We had to keep them with us.” She looked at the sadly and put them in. “She wasn’t a bad woman. Just harsh and stubborn in teaching us. But there’s no one left looking for her now.”</p><p>Adalind frowned, watching the hair as it slipped back into the box, looking once again like normal hair. “…My mother never even let on that something like this ever happened…”</p><p>“No. We tried to go on with our lives. We all had our ambitions. But it never sat right with me that Catharine moved on so easily when she was the cause. Like the fact she’d done that, killed her so painfully for such petty reasons, didn’t bother her…That dragging us down with her didn’t matter. So, we didn’t talk much. She toured the US, Elizabeth went to Europe, and I…did a lot of soul searching. Took a chance in finding a weiße Hexe and starting new training.”</p><p>“A…white witch? Those still exist?” Adalind asked in surprise.</p><p>“Yes. Though secretly, since most other hexe think they’re unnatural. I’m not quite that level though. We lost touch till Elizabeth contacted me needing a place to hide with, with a seven-year-old Sean. I offered her a room and help starting over in Portland. Then your mother called. I was still wary, but Elizabeth felt for her because she needed a place with you, as a baby. Said your father died suddenly and she needed a new home. Again, we suggested here, and she came out. But she hadn’t changed much. She was still focused on her own agenda, leaving you with us most of the time. Still selfish, still vain, still controlling…”</p><p>“…She was my mother,” Adalind said quietly.</p><p>Henrietta looked at her sympathetically. “I know. But I also know when you first lost your powers, she disowned you. She considered you dead, didn’t she?”</p><p>“If you didn’t talk, how do you know that?” she asked, wincing.</p><p>“Because I know Catharine. It’s not that I don’t think she had any love for you, I think it was there. But she loved herself more. You being strong was a testament to her own power. You failing was like her failing and she wouldn’t accept that. And I see too much of your mother in you, Adalind. You will do anything, step over anyone, <em>hurt</em> anyone to get what you want.”</p><p>“I wouldn’t hurt my daughter,” she choked out.</p><p>“No, but I don’t want your daughter thinking that her power is the only valuable thing about her.”</p><p>“It’s not! That’s why the royals want her, not me!”</p><p>“So, if I said I help you get her provided we suppress her powers permanently? Now before she becomes too strong?”</p><p>“No!” Adalind nearly yelled. She swallowed at Henrietta’s dubious look and stammered. “I’ve had my powers taken. I felt like part of me was lost. Like I died, that Nick killed me. I don’t want to do that to her.”</p><p>She nodded. “A good answer, but I’m not sure it’s the true one. After all, without her power, the royals wouldn’t want her. She would be safe, even if it has a cost. And you can learn to live with loss. And therein lies my further concern. You’ve entangled yourself with the royals worse than Elisabeth. Even before your daughter was born. You promised her to them in exchange for your powers.”</p><p>“But I didn’t follow through!”</p><p>“No, and she’s being hunted. As hard as it was, Sean came up with a plan to keep Viktor from getting her. Then you fell for his deceit, took the Grimm’s powers, and from there you have your situation with Juliette. Even before that, the Grimm took your powers because you chose to take your fight outside of the two of you and involve his friend, didn’t you?” Adalind didn’t deny it, looking away. “Adalind, nearly every problem you have faced is one of your own making. By pushing the Grimm, you got your powers taken. By working with the royals to get your powers back, you bartered your child and brought them after you both. By running, you brought Viktor to Portland and forced Sean to make a plan—”</p><p>“I didn’t force him to trick me!”</p><p>“Maybe he didn’t handle it well either, but he was protecting his mother, you and Diana doing what he did, with little time to prepare. Your actions were purely for yourself. And you knew that. Knew what Viktor would threaten. But long before then, even orders you were given by Sean, you were ruthless and made enemies left and right through your selfishness and pride. And I’m not interested in seeing what you do to yourself and that girl as long as you are focused on the past like this.” Adalind glared but then turned to storm out the door. “And do not try to come here again to fight me because I may like to help people, but I am not a push over,” Henrietta warned seriously.</p><p>Adalind cast her one last angry look before slamming the door behind her.</p><p>------------------</p><p>In France, there is a hidden library beneath the Bibliothèque Historique de la Ville de Paris. It matched the age, grandeur and beauty of the library above. And it had refreshments—it was Paris, after all. A kitchen with good food and better alcohol to give Grimms a rest and feel like someone appreciated the work they did. Due to its size it also had a much larger staff, including a concierge to handle matters not directly related to the inventory.</p><p>When the concierge checked their mail list, he saw a letter had arrived some days ago for a patron who had returned from a hunt that day. Taking the letter from the sorter and placing it on a tray. He walked it out over to the sitting area in front of a fireplace—now electric to avoid fire, smoke or carbon monoxide but still cozy. A figure was sitting in the chair in front of it, sipping from a glass partly full of amber liquid. The paused when the concierge approached, speaking in French.</p><p>“((Madame, this arrived for you while you were on your hunt.))”</p><p>“((A Dead Letter))?” she asked, voice deep but rather flat.</p><p>“((I’m afraid so.))”</p><p>“((A pity, but who would send it to me?))” she sighed, putting her glass down taking it. He bowed and walked away as she used her finger to break the wax seal and open it. She picked up her glass again as she started reading but paused before taking a sip as she read. Her grip tightened on the glass more and more before it cracked and broke under the pressure.</p><p>“((Madame?!))” The concierge gasped, rushing back over. He paused, seeing that despite the broken glass, she was unharmed, just shaking her hand out angrily.</p><p>“((Louis, I need a plane ticket,))” she said, standing. Her expression and her voice were like jagged stones falling in an avalanche and the man shrank back.</p><p>“((Of course…where?))”</p><p>“((Portland, Oregon. In the United states. First available.))”</p><p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>And once again, things are really going to start changing from here through and the biggest changes are coming...</p></blockquote></div></div>
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